HIGH-RISE HEROIN HELL

HEROIN dealers are back at a Fitzroy housing estate just days after the end
of a zero-tolerance police blitz.

A Herald Sun INSIGHT team investigating Melbourne's inner-city public
housing tower blocks witnessed the return of the drug trade.

INSIGHT reporters at the high-rise estates during and after the blitz were
regularly asked if they wanted to buy heroin, marijuana or amphetamines.

The INSIGHT team lived in an inner-city commission flat for a week during
the month-long probe.

They found that many high-rise dwellers fear living in what they describe
as dangerous ghettoes they are too scared to walk around in.

The filthy Collingwood, Fitzroy, North Richmond and Carlton tower blocks
are littered with syringes and house dozens of drug users, dealers and
prostitutes.

Terrified residents say they are too scared to report the myriad crimes
committed on the estates.

They fear co-operating with police will bring violent retribution from the
criminal gangs flourishing in and around the blocks.

The INSIGHT team witnessed heroin dug up by police in a busy children's
playground.

They watched police raid the drug dealers' flats and drag the occupants out
in handcuffs.

They helped get a three-year-old girl to hospital after a boy attacked her
with a rock in a playground.

Her mother, who does not speak English, was too scared to report the assault.

The INSIGHT investigation also discovered:

ONE of the worst tower blocks is to get a 24-hour a day police station.

IF the new police station in the Fitzroy towers is successful then there
are plans to install stations at other high-rise estates.

THE State Government admits some of the 50,000 people on the waiting list
for public housing have refused to live in the notorious inner-city tower
blocks.

DANGEROUS used syringes litter the estates, with some found inside
fire-fighting equipment.

DRUG deals happen every day at the high-rise flats.

HUNDREDS of people flock to the estates from the suburbs of Melbourne to
score drugs.

HEALTH workers say the high-rise estates have replaced Smith St in
Collingwood and Russell St in the city as the new heroin hot spots.

TOWER block tenants have to put up with urine, faeces, vomit and blood in
their lifts and corridors.

HOUSING department staff refuse to walk in the corridors without a security
escort.

PROMISED security patrols in some estates just do not happen.

BROKEN lifts, badly maintained fire equipment and unlit stairwells are common.

The Herald Sun last week revealed police had arrested 83 people during a
two-week zero tolerance blitz at the Collingwood and Fitzroy flats in which
drugs and weapons were seized. But at least three dealers were seen selling
drugs the same day the report was published.

An INSIGHT team was offered drugs on several occasions last week when it
visited the Atherton Gardens high-rise estate in Fitzroy.

Dealers said heroin, amphetamines and marijuana were all available on the
estate. "The cops come in and crack down on crime, but the dealers just go
quiet for a while and only sell to people they know," one dealer said. "You
can get heroin on every floor here."

Residents claim the recent police crackdown had little effect on the drug
trade inside the flats.

"It's like Victoria Market, day and night," one father said. "But if we
make a complaint to the police or housing ministry then who knows what will
happen to our families."

Two-person security teams patrol the buildings and grounds, but have not
been able to stop the flood of junkies and crime plaguing the estates.

Housing Minister Bronwyn Pike told INSIGHT that Victoria Police was
finalising plans for a 24-hour station at the Atherton Gardens estate in
Fitzroy.

It will be housed at the base of one of the four blocks and could be
operational within months.

Satellite police stations at the Collingwood, Carlton and North Richmond
estates will follow if the Fitzroy trial is successful.

But residents fear police will never stop the heroin trade inside the
buildings because of the culture of fear.

"If I tell the police what my neighbour is doing, then who knows if I'll
end up dead," an elderly resident said. "Nobody wants to talk about it."

Community workers, residents and dealers told INSIGHT that the housing
estates were Melbourne's new heroin hot spots.

Community workers said police crackdowns in the city and the Smith St
retail strip in Collingwood had forced drugs into the high-rise flats.

"People can congratulate themselves and say we have had a wonderful win
with drugs," said North Yarra community health service manager Vera Boston.

"But they have moved into areas such as public housing estates, where there
is a blurring between public and private space."

Ms Boston said health workers collected as many as 1400 syringes a week
from the 12 high-rise buildings in the North Yarra area alone.