Be hesitant to leave housing in a poor state (9)
I believe the answer is:
vacillate
'be hesitant' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'leave housing in a poor state' is the wordplay.
'leave' becomes 'vacate' (to vacate a place is to leave it).
'housing' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'in a poor state' becomes 'ill' (poorly).
'vacate' placed around 'ill' is 'VACILLATE'.
'to' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for vacillate that I've seen before include "Waver" , "Dither" , "indecisive" , "Be in two minds" , "Be unsteady" .)