Social contact is not always beneficial and can also be a source of conflict and stress, particularly for older people (Veenstra, 2005; Wiggins et al, 2004). Several women told negative stories about their neighbours, which influenced negative feelings about their housing.
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Interviewees 2 (quoted in Chapter 3, page 111) and 26 had bought former public- housing properties in predominantly public housing areas. Interviewee 2
complained about being victimised by her neighbour, followed by a tour to show the external damage which confirmed that she was not making it up. Interviewee 26 complained about noise nuisance from hooning, and nervousness from late night trespassing.
Interviewee 26
These lunatics next door; I‘ve rung the police up to them so many times … they just do burnie-burnies, you know, wheelie-wheelies and sit in the drive way and go ooh-ooh-ooh. It doesn‘t make any sense. I mean I had two teenage sons and another lady around here had teenage sons, you wouldn‘t even know they had a car …
Their experiences with neighbours are consistent with findings that tenants in private or public rental properties show less commitment and attachment to their neighbourhood (Hulse and Stone, 2007). What these interviewees said reinforced other interviewees‘ understanding of what it means to be a good neighbour. Other aspects of these interviews were similar to what other women said about getting along with neighbours. They spoke in a similar vein, about what being a good neighbour meant to them, although with more vehemence.
Interviewee 20‘s complaint about a mentally ill neighbour may reflect
deinstitutionalization and a lack of responsive and supportive options in the community.
Interviewee 20
I ignore. I report to police before and police you can see, he can‘t do anything. They come in the step and say a lot of things, bad things in the door, break the door, and … to the step through the night, nearly every night and policeman when I say to him catch him and put him in the [gaol] … He say we not allowed, we can catch him but we not allowed to put him in the gaol. We can put him in that special hospital for people like that and hospital, he [the hospital] want to get rid of him. He give it to him injection to be right for two or three days then let him in the street.
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Interviewee 21, who was having problems with noise nuisance from late night parties from a neighbour in a private rental property, emphasised that only one neighbour was problematic. These latter two residents were both home owners in what appeared to be areas of private housing.
Interviewee 21
Yes. I, I‘ve got a troublesome neighbour, but, apart from that, only just one neighbour on the other side. All the other neighbours are very quiet, very nice, yes, and all that sort of thing … he has girls there and late nights and cars banging and squealing; and [sighs] uh … There‘s been one police raid there already. And the police have been there twice last week and … I‘ve got to be careful. I wouldn‘t like to go out there or I‘m too frightened to dob him in. I couldn‘t report him because I‘m a bit nervous of the repercussions from the other people, not the owner.
The two women who were public-housing tenants talked of issues with their public-housing neighbours. Their stories were primarily monologues, suggesting distress. Interviewee 29 was distressed by what she referred to as criminal activity, child abuse and domestic violence in a household next door; and an unpredictable mentally ill neighbour across the street who sometimes verbally abused her, and which she said was affecting her health. She emphasised that she had lived in another public-housing area and had not had problems with her neighbours there.
Interviewee 29
And I don‘t like the people up here because they, er, fight. They sell drugs … For Interviewee 30, who lived in a complex of six public-housing units, her concerns with neighbours were more about personal conflict. She was distressed because a next-door neighbour had been ostracising her and complaining about her renovations and her dog to the state housing authority. This woman spoke positively and in a similar vein to others about positive and reciprocal
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Interviewee 30
Then one person within the complex took it upon themselves to write and said, and I had the copy of the letter, which said, ‗and as for all her
renovations, with or without your permission‘ and then the dog got a serve The reports from the four women living in purpose-built retirement unit complexes were very positive when it came to talk of reciprocity between neighbours, and having a feeling of community.
Interviewee 23
We get on well together … I mean I get on well with everybody …
Interviewee 30
Living here, I like the community spirit, because I‘m living in a disabled unit in a block of six units and we‘ve managed to achieve a community feeling within the units. And I like the feeling of safeness. I like the friendship …
Interviewee 31
I know I can call on my neighbours. If I go sick then, whatever, I can say, look, can you pick me up some bread and milk from the shop, or something like that and they will happily do it.
Interviewee 28 (quoted above), who had moved to her retirement unit when it was first built, was well settled. Most neighbours in her six-unit cluster were over 80 like her and some were disabled. They had all moved in at about the same time, knew each other well and helped each other when needed. This over-50s
community had a wide range of ages, including relatively active people, which the resident said made it less depressing. This woman joked that most of her friends believed she had moved to a nursing home.
Interviewee 33, who lived in an Abbeyfield House35, referred to positive
relationships with her neighbours:
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Interviewee 33
So and we get on very well … I mean everyone … I‘m quite reasonably friendly with, with everyone.
Interviewee 33 was tentative in her talk of her relationships with her neighbours, and of needing to be assertive to avoid intrusion from unwanted visits, suggested that close proximity was creating tensions, strengthening her desire to retreat to the privacy of her own room and not spend time in the common areas, other than for meals. Consistent with other residents‘ wisdom on getting along with
neighbours, she said she valued reciprocal helping relationships and clear
boundaries, referred to occasions of reciprocity between her and other residents, and said she worked at maintaining cordial relationships with all of the
Abbeyfield residents, even though there were some she didn‘t particularly like. Interviewee 23, who lived a conventional government-subsidised unit in a retirement and aged-care complex, also talked about needing to manage
relationships with neighbours who could be unduly intrusive. Consistent with a caring orientation, while considering other persons‘ feelings, both Interviewee 23 and Interviewee 33 had found ways to politely cut their neighbours‘ visits short. However, in both of situations, the proximity of neighbours appeared to be a source of stress and to require constant vigilance and assertiveness.
Two interviewees did not talk about their neighbours at all and appeared to have little or no contact with them. Outside of the taped interview, Interviewee 4, who had bought a house in a relatively deprived area 17 years before, said that she regarded her neighbours as socially undesirable, made a point of avoiding them and had little to say about them. Interviewee 6, who had lived in her house for seven years, had worked previously and was looking for work, did not talk about neighbours other than to say it was a quiet neighbourhood. Both these women had connections with the workforce and interests that took them outside their home often. These differences reflect differences in lifestyle, length of stay and different expectations between older and younger age cohorts, consistent with recent findings (Olsberg and Winters, 2005).