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  • 2 years ago
Nearly a month after an explosion flattened a social housing complex at Whalan in western Sydney more than a dozen displaced residents are still living in emergency temporary accommodation. The family of one elderly woman say their mother's trauma has been compounded because she's been unable to receive visitors in the accommodation the government has placed her in.

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00:00When the explosion ripped through this row of social housing townhouses in Wycanda Crescent
00:06almost a month ago, it destroyed the place that Nanette Dawson had called home for 17
00:12years.
00:13That home was everything to Mum.
00:15It was her safe place and it was her sanctuary.
00:19Since then, the traumatised 86-year-old has been living in a facility with women and children
00:24who fled violence.
00:25Her children say rules there prevent them from visiting.
00:29Are you alright?
00:32I just feel sad to be here.
00:36But then I'm sad every day.
00:39I know.
00:41Hopefully it won't be too much longer.
00:43Nanette's Brisbane-based daughter Shireen speaks to her every day.
00:47It's very hard to hear her just breaking down all the time and just crying, just saying
00:56that she wants to go home.
00:58She says it's been difficult to get straight answers from Homes NSW about finding a more
01:02suitable home for her mum.
01:04I don't feel it's the right place for Mum and I don't understand why there is nowhere
01:11else to house elderly residents that are in crisis.
01:17Homes NSW says Nanette Dawson has declined its offers of alternative temporary accommodation
01:22without visitor restrictions.
01:24After the ABC made inquiries, Shireen Dawson received an email expressing sympathy for
01:29her mother's circumstances and offering extra assistance.
01:32It's now working to make modifications to a long-term property for her.
01:36The residents who lived here lost everything in the explosion, but some are still hoping
01:40they'll get the opportunity to salvage some precious possessions from the rubble before
01:44the site is demolished.
01:46A spokesperson for Homes NSW says reasonable attempts will be made to salvage residents'
01:51belongings.
01:52That would mean the absolute world.
01:56One in particular is the last birthday card that my brother had sent her before he passed
02:03away three years ago.
02:05Nanette Dawson is hoping she'll one day be able to move back to Wakanda Crescent, but
02:10Homes NSW says the future use of the site is yet to be determined.
02:14Fourteen displaced residents remain in temporary accommodation.
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