The state Liberals have been accused of a hypocritical “scare campaign” after targeting housing trust tenants with letters suggesting they could lose their homes.

Deputy Opposition leader Vickie Chapman and frontbencher Rachel Sanderson have sent letters to constituents living in Housing Trust homes in their electorates of Bragg and Adelaide.

Both letters run to an identical template, sounding alarm bells about the Weatherill Government’s plan to “renew” public housing stock built before 1968.

Sanderson writes: “I met with Deputy Premier John Rau and requested that he write directly to you to make it clear whether your home is included in this renewal policy … I also requested a list of affected properties but am yet to receive it.”

“I appreciate that uncertainty about where you will be living in an extremely stressful situation,” the letter continues, with both authors noting that in recent redevelopments in other areas “I saw firsthand the impact on people’s health and stress levels”.

Rau told InDaily he considered the mailouts to be “very close to push-polling”.

“All this is doing is actually scaring people who feel understandably vulnerable,” he said.

“I can tell you the effect of this letter, they’re clearly trying to put a question in the minds of people that their particular home may be a target.

“A number of these people are becoming distressed and making calls to Renewal SA or parliament.”

It comes only days after the Housing Trust Tenants’ Association was castigated in a parliamentary inquiry over a letter sent to residents during last year’s election campaign, warning that a Liberal victory would see some forced from their homes.

It prompted a formal complaint from the Opposition, which forcefully denied the claims and questioned whether tenants’ privacy had been breached by the direct mail campaign.

Rau said it was hypocrisy that the Liberal Party had “made a big deal about the Tenants’ Association letters”, calling the Opposition’s own mailout “completely inconsistent behaviour”.

“At the very least, they’re guilty of being able to run with the foxes and hunt with the hounds,” he said.

Chapman told InDaily in a statement that “Liberal members were responding to the distress caused to public housing tenants who learned through the media the Weatherill Government was planning to move many of them from their homes”.

“It is disgraceful that the Weatherill Government didn’t have the courtesy to inform its tenants that they may be forced to move before it told the media … obviously the Labor Government was more interested in a media story than in the welfare of thousands of our most vulnerable people,” she said.

InDaily asked the whether any other Liberal MPs had sent similar letters in their electorates, but did not receive an answer.

It is understood the addresses were obtained directly from local councils, with names matched up to them via the electoral roll. However, it’s also understood the Liberal Party has sought details of Housing SA properties via Freedom of Information.

Rau said the letters were calculated to “frighten” residents into believing “they might lose their homes … and raising a spectre for people that’s just not there”.

“It’s not the case every pre-1969 home would be demolished,” he said.

“Some might be in perfectly good order and may be refurbished.

“Each and every one who might be affected will be visited, spoken to and accommodated, and not all these homes will be demolished; some will be some upgraded.”

He said the program would “roll out over the next couple of years”, once potential properties had been identified.

It comes as the Government divests management of almost 1100 public housing properties across Elizabeth Grove, Elizabeth Vale and Mitchell Park to community housing providers AnglicareSA Housing and Junction Australia.

“These established community housing providers have extensive local knowledge which can better meet the complex needs of tenants and communities by working closely with support agencies and local groups,” said Rau.

“By transferring the management of these properties, we are consolidating a multi provider social housing system in South Australia.

Social Housing Minister Zoe Bettison said the changes would not negatively impact the financial circumstances of tenants.

“In fact, financial advantages available to community housing providers mean they have increased capacity to work with tenants on plans to improve their property standards,” she said.