Ainslie Avenue public housing project expands to Belconnen

The High Density Housing Safety and Security Program, expected to commence fully in Belconnen in the coming weeks, has been benefiting public housing residents on Ainslie Avenue for almost a decade.

The program is a joint venture between Reclink, the Justice and Community Safety Directorate, ACT Health and other community service stakeholders.

At the four Ainslie Avenue sites where the program currently runs, headed up by Mark Ransome, it has had remarkably positive results.

An Institute of Criminology study released earlier this year showed reductions between 50 and 60 percent in property crime, violent crime and a significant increase in residents' feelings of social inclusion.

Mr Ransome is the on-the-ground manager of the program and he said there were many outcomes for residents he witnessed that might not be adequately captured by statistics.

"What flies under the radar a lot is the health outcomes of the project," Mr Ransome said.

"We’ve had some people give up drugs and alcohol. We’ve got people into permanent employment. We’ve got people who now eat much healthier diets, you wouldn’t believe the amount of water that we hand out on a weekly basis."

Mr Ransome said the biggest difference he's noticed in his almost 10 years working on Ainslie Avenue has been the stabilisation of residents' mental health.

"They will often say if you weren’t here I’d just sit at home alone," he said.

"It’s really building a sense of community spirit. On any given day we’ll have a chat with between 40 and 55 people."

Minister for Corrections and Justice Health Shane Rattenbury has championed the project which is part of the government's commitment to justice reinvestment. This is the principle of investing money into preventative measures to assist people to avoid coming into contact with the criminal justice system.

Mr Rattenbury said while he was cautious to generalise about the residents in community housing, he said it was a fact many had experience within the criminal justice system.

He said justice reinvestment wound up better off for the whole community rather than investing in more or larger prisons.

"People will be released from jail," Mr Rattenbury said.

"They will come out, whether it’s one year, three years, ten years, they will come out and become a member of our community again and so intervening and making a difference for them makes us all better off.

"You see that sliding door moment in their life where misfortune has set them on a certain path. It’s nice to think we might provide them with another sliding door moment that sends them on a different path."

Illawarra Court was used as the control site for the study which examined the Ainslie Avenue program, which Mr Rattenbury said made it an obvious choice to expand to as so much was already known about the site and its residents.

He said he expected further expansion to different sites across Canberra to take place more quickly in future as the government and service providers had developed a solid understanding of the program and its benefits. He added the positive results from the Australian Institute of Criminology would be helpful in gaining further funding in future.

While there may be similarities between the Belconnen and city sites, Mr Ransome said he and and his team would need to take time to tailor the program to the specific needs of Illawarra Court residents.

"Even on Ainslie Avenue we work on four sites and all four sites are like islands," Mr Ransome said.

"Each one is very, very different."

"A lot of the early stages in these sorts of things is just watch and observe. Every site has an alpha male and an alpha female. There’s a pecking order.

"You’ve just got to take it nice and gentle and try and get a feel for who’s running the show."

Activities at Ainslie Avenue include community gardens, a wood workshop, a laundry program, a bridge-to-bridge monthly run, a neighbourhood chat program, among others.

While plenty of differences may exist, many features of the program, including the approach and methodology, will remain the same.

"The philosophy behind the project isn’t rocket science," Mr Ransome said.

"It’s just to listen to people, try and understand their situation, sometimes you can make suggestions that may make things a bit easier or better for people.

"And ultimately a lot of it is just asking questions to gain understanding. It’s important just to maintain their self-esteem.

"It's basic stuff, but it does make a difference."