‘I was in tears’: collapsed ceiling in family home a sign of dire state of NSW public housing

A deluge brought the ceiling down in a bedroom in Dean Kahukiwa’s public housing unit. A month later, he was still waiting for it to be repaired. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

When the ceiling of an upstairs bedroom in Dean Kahukiwa’s public housing unit in Sydney collapsed during a storm in February, the father of three immediately started calling for help.

“I was watching it as it was happening, first the water started to come in through the window. Then it sort of spread across the ceiling towards the light and all of a sudden a crack started to appear. Then ‘whooosh’ it went,” he told the Guardian.