This Housing New Zealand complex in Phillipstown, Christchurch has been the subject of 14 complaints since it opened in May 2016.

Neighbours of a modern Housing New Zealand complex say they are being driven out by burglaries, assaults and public defecation stemming from the social housing block.

Most of the residents at the nine-unit England St, Phillipstown complex were good neighbours, but some were changing "the whole tenor of the community", a neighbour said. The man, who had lived on nearby Suffolk St for five years, did not want to be named for fear of repercussions.

Attempts to contact Housing New Zealand (HNZ) to have the issues addressed had gone unanswered for months, he said.

An elderly resident who had lived in the neighbourhood for 38 years had put her house on the market because of the disturbance.

"I certainly don't have any prejudice against social housing and was looking forward to it – it's a beautiful building, they're well appointed and I think that's exactly what the community should be advocating," the Suffolk St neighbour said.

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"The problem is that within six months, the behaviours associated with that complex have been outrageous and I've never experienced anything like it."

The man said his 11-year-old son had been too afraid to stay in his sleepout for about three months. Alcohol and drugs were prevalent and the man believed drug deals were happening in the street.

"There have been public displays of domestic violence, there's been physical assault in the middle of the day against women and these are being done in the visibility of children.

"As of last weekend, we've had excrement smeared on a variety of cars parked in the street."

Several of the concerned neighbours will meet with staff from HNZ, police and a representative from Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb's office on Friday.

Police were unable to comment on whether there had been an upsurge in crime since the complex was tenanted in May 2016 without looking at data, which would require an Official Information Act request.

HNZ Christchurch area manager Fraser Benson said the complex, one of nine in Phillipstown with more than six units, had fielded 14 complaints since opening.

"These complaints include claims of shouting, swearing, slamming doors and noise, a dog in the complex, drunkenness and alleged drug use in one of the flats [and] an assault on a tenant at the street front," he said.

The Suffolk St resident said he had been trying to contact the HNZ property manager for months, but had no response until Benson contacted him last month.

Benson said he had since "personally apologised" to the man for the lack of response and that "things were very busy just prior to Christmas".

The situation framed part of a wider issue, the Suffolk St resident said, around support from HNZ for neighbours when social housing complexes entered a community.

HNZ was not legally required to notify neighbours when such a development was about to open in a community and did not do so in this instance.

But Benson said HNZ worked "with our tenants to be good neighbours".

SELLING AFTER 38 YEARS

Another neighbour to the complex, aged in her 80s, was attempting to sell her home of 38 years because of the disruption and two recent burglaries.

She said police recently returned a broach that was taken, but it was one item from a large quantity of jewellery and a camera that had been stolen. Her television had also been taken.

"The whole area, everywhere, has changed … it's what they call progress, but it's not always good progress, is it?

"[The police have] been very, very good. I got my TV back, but I don't really want it. It feels like it's secondhand."

She said residents in the complex previously contributed to a neighbourly feel, where "you'd hear the children playing happily in the yard", but that had changed and "it gets a bit much".

"It's not good for the children to hear all the filthy language coming out of a person's mouth. That's how it gets passed on from generation to generation, so the poor children don't get a chance."