She can cope with her electricity and gas bills by "being frugal with heating", has got used to a small bedroom window which will not shut from the inside and warms her clothing by placing items under her duvet overnight. But it is the water dribbling down the inside of the concrete block wall in her lounge which really annoys her.
"It drives me nuts," she said on Friday.
Mrs Little (66) said she was sure the roof leaked and dismissed the view of council staff who told her the dribbles were condensation caused by running a gas heater. A neighbour, Michael Dyer, whose flat is in a separate block, also ran a gas heater and he did not have water on his walls, she said.
"I've spoken to three different people [at the council] and they don't give a damn".
Both Mrs Little, who has rented her Fingall St flat for six years, and Mr Dyer (73), who has been a tenant for five, have asked the council to insulate the four flats in their complex.
Mr Dyer said he had offered to buy underfloor insulation if the council would pay for the installation but that offer "went in their too-hard basket". He also offered to buy a heat pump and leave it for the next tenant if the council paid for its installation, but that offer was not accepted either.
Council housing manager Sharron Tipa said last week the council had a $5 million, five-year programme to upgrade insulation in its 990 flats, accessing Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority subsidies to do so.
But she said the Fingall St flats had skillion roofs - where the ceiling is the same angle as the roofline - and there was no easy way to install insulation. There was also no space for underfloor insulation.
Mr Dyer said ceiling insulation was installed at similar flats in Cuttance St when the roof was replaced recently.
Mrs Tipa said that was correct and had happened because the Cuttance St roof was asbestos and needed to be replaced. The Fingall St roofs did not.
She said she felt for Mrs Little and Mr Dyer.
"I wish we had the money to insulate all the flats at once, but we don't. The flats are self-funding. If we insulate more flats than we have programmed we would have to increase rents to pay for it."
Mrs Tipa said about 600 flats would be insulated by the end of June next year and another 280 had been programmed for the 2012-13 financial year.
The council could not allow the installation of heat pumps because of question marks over who would maintain them, and because of the difficulties of placement and noise from external compressors. A few tenants had bought portable heat pumps which required an exhaust hole to be cut into a window. The council allowed those provided the tenant met the cost of replacing the window if they vacated the flat.
Paul Booth, a tenant in Rutherford St, Caversham, said his bed-sit flat had been insulated this year. While his wardrobe and its contents were drier, he was not yet sure whether his house was warmer.
"It's a bit hard to tell. I think my electricity bills have gone down by $15-$20 a month, but it has been so cold recently I'm not sure if that is going to last."
Mr Booth lived in a council flat in Burns St, South Dunedin, before leaving Dunedin for a time, returning and moving into Rutherford St. The Burns St flat was cold and lacking in sun.
