PHOTO: ‘It’s not habitable’ – woman bailed to Auckland house so unhygienic she contracted scabies | 1 NEWS NOW | TVNZ
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A remand prisoner on electronic bail is hitting out at a social housing agency and the Department of Corrections over accommodation she says is so bad it should be shut down. Placed there by a court, the woman, Chanelle Sandilands, says the house is uninhabitable, rife with mould, damp and so unhygienic she has contracted scabies and head lice. After six weeks in prison on remand, Ms Sandilands got a break when she was bailed to a South Auckland house. She was electronically monitored, but she didn’t care. “I was excited. I can contact my family. I am able to go outside and sit outside and breathe in the fresh air,” she told 1 NEWS. But a month on, what she’s got to show for it is, “Scratching, itching, pain burning on my skin. I thought it would just be like mosquito bites.” A doctor delivered the unsavoury news to her. “I actually had headlice and scabies.” The house is run by the Manukau Urban Maori Authority, known as MUMA. Contracted by Corrections, it’s geared up to house five remand prisoners on electronic bail. Ms Sandilands pays $210 a week rent. But she says from the start it was cold, smelly, riddled with mould and damp.