Residents say a rise in crime and anti-social behaviour is due to a "revolving door" of tenants emanating from two houses in their street.

Two planning permit applications have been lodged with Hobsons Bay Council for the use of 59 and 61 Purnell Street as boarding houses.

Westside Accommodation, which lists a Werribee post office box as its contact point, wants to accommodate up to 10 lodgers at each address. Currently, it claims to have eight adults living under one roof.

The application form lists the properties' owner as Bjorn Landschultz Engelhardt, living in Singapore.

Business and finance director Glenn O'Sullivan said the council was investigating complaints that the properties had been used as boarding houses for a year.

Neighbouring resident Debbie Brooks said that after canvassing residents in only one-and-a-half streets, she had collected 70 signatures for a petition opposing the boarding houses proposal and the "undesirable" element they attracted. "It's so bad that on one side of the house we have all the blinds drawn," she said.

"The police are there every second day."

Maureen Shaw, who has lived in the area for 44 years, said she found discarded needles while walking with her granddaughter.

"One Saturday morning, we took the little one out in a pram and there were about five or six syringes. We've had police and the ambulance up and down the street. A lot of cars have been broken into and had their windows smashed. There have been burglaries at the Bell Avenue end.

"You don't feel safe, even to put the rubbish bins out at night, because you've got people running up and down the street fighting and swearing."

Simone, who requested her last name be withheld, claimed one of the lodgers was abducted from home, bashed and forced to withdraw money at an ATM.

"My husband and I have been in Purnell Street for nine years," she said. "In eight years, I think I'd never seen a police car; in the past 12 months I've seen a police car every week. I've got two kids and it's not safe for them to go out the front any more."

Detective Senior Sergeant Kerin Moloney, of Altona North CIU, said crime had increased in the vicinity of Purnell Street.

"We have had residential burglaries in the area and there has been an increase in anti-social behaviour, but obviously we can't link it to any address. It's imperative residents call us; we will seek to attend promptly."

Local police: 93923111.