Melbourne residents in 'hard lockdown' say they pleaded for more help three months ago

Residents and relatives of people living in the Melbourne public housing blocks placed into “hard lockdown” by the Victorian government say they pleaded months ago for more cleaning and resources to help keep the virus out of their homes but authorities failed to listen.

About 3,000 people in nine housing blocks in North Melbourne and Flemington have been banned from leaving under any circumstances for at least five days in a move government said was needed to stop the spread of the virus.

The decision came suddenly on Saturday after more than 20 cases were detected in the two estates, a figure which had exceeded 50 on Monday amid a ramp-up of testing.

But residents and relatives of those in “hard lockdown” said they had been calling for more resources for their estates back in March when Victoria first went into stage three restrictions.

Related: Border closes between NSW and Victoria as southern state records largest ever jump in Covid-19 cases

Former resident Amona Hassab, who grew up in the Flemington housing estate, wrote to the health and human services department that many who lived in there were “especially vulnerable” due to underlying health conditions and the high density of the flats.

“I just wanted to know measures the DHHS are taking in response to preventing or minimising the spread of the coronavirus in the Flemington housing estate,” wrote Hassab, whose family is from Eritrea and still lives in the flats.

The email – sent in late March – called for more printed resources in diverse languages and questioned the department’s plans for deep cleaning of high-traffic areas within the buildings, such as shared laundries, lifts, intercoms and main foyers.

Hassab told the Guardian on Monday a department official phoned back to listen to her concerns and suggestions, which included messaging to limit the number of people taking the same lift, more cleaning, and culturally appropriate signage and stickers in common areas.

But she said little action was taken and she did not believe her warnings were taken seriously.

“I made the suggestions and he said in quite a patronising way: ‘Do you actually believe people would listen to those or comply if we were to put up posters saying you should be 1.5 metres apart?’ ” Hassab said.

“I went to the buildings a few times and what I suggested wasn’t there. There were no posts saying X number of people should be in a lift at any given time. Even though he sounded pleased about it. That hasn’t been done.”

Hana, who has lived at the Flemington high rises for 10 years, also raised complaints with the department about a lack of cleaning in her building, beginning in late March.

“I’ve had several conversations with the department of housing and with the person who is managing the building in terms of hygiene and the standards that were in place,” she said.

“I raised it a couple of times with him and he was supposed to raise it with the cleaning company. The standards were very low to the point that we were doing our own cleaning of the floor.”

Hassab said her family and friends had seen cleaners at the height of the initial lockdown in April but the activity then subsided.

“High traffic areas weren’t cleaned. It just kind of faded away,” she said.

Complaints about a lack of hand sanitiser and language-specific information are widespread. Awatif Taha, Hiba Shanino and Elhadi Abass all said in seperate pieces for the Guardian that housing authorities had brought hand sanitiser into the building at some stage during the pandemic but never replaced it.

Taha said there was information in the foyer of her building in Arabic and Chinese but that was not enough.

Ahmed Faid, an Eritrean community leader who also lives in the Flemington flats, said authorities had not done enough to engage with multicultural representatives.

He also questioned why residents were not told when a case had been diagnosed in their building.

“They could have sent a single message saying, ‘There is a case in your area, so be extra vigilant,’ ” he said. “Lots of problems could have been solved.”

Related: Coronavirus Australia map and statistics: new and active cases, Covid-19 hotspots and state by state data update

Hana had also raised concerns with management that people were cramming into one lift because the other one was out of order.

Instead the department official “went on about how people shouldn’t be leaving their homes and how people shouldn’t be watching foreign news: ‘They should be watching Australian news.’

“I said, ‘This is beside the point. I’m not here to police what people are leaving the house for. I’m telling you my concern as a resident.”

The Victorian health and human services department said residents in all estates had received information since the start of the pandemic, including in languages other than English.

“The minister for housing also wrote to all tenants in early April as cases rose and restrictions were implemented to further reinforce the messages around symptoms, testing and how to protect yourself and your family,” it said.

Additional sanitisation services had been introduced, “including regular cleaning of touchpoints in common areas such as door handles and lift buttons, three times a day, seven days a week”.

“Hand sanitiser dispensers have also been placed in foyers and have been be refilled daily and as necessary,” it said.

Do you know more? luke.henriques-gomes@theguardian.com