Community Housing Industry Association

After four years in the making, yesterday Unison CEO James King was joined by Minister Harriet Shing and Lord Mayor Nick Reece to officially open Make Room: a landmark transitional housing project. Make Room is a partnership between the City of Melbourne and Unison Housing, the Victorian Government and the philanthropic sector to address the critical needs of people experiencing rough sleeping and homelessness in our city. This collaborative project provides 50 supportive self-contained units for Melbourne’s most vulnerable, complete with onsite health and social support services, communal living spaces and a rooftop garden. Unison Housing has partnered with cohealth to provide wraparound onsite support services and Ngwala Willumbong Aboriginal Corporation (Ngwala) to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residents in transitioning and sustaining their Make Room tenancy. 🏘️ Residents will begin moving in from early 2025. Find out more about this transformative project on our website: https://bit.ly/3cYw4Ue City of Melbourne | Homes Victoria | cohealth | Ngwala Willumbong Aboriginal Corporation | Harris HMC | i2C Architects | Reshape Development #MakeRoom #Melbourne #VIC #Homelessness #CommunityHousing 

Labor is delivering more funding for social, affordable and crisis accommodation across the country for those who need it most. Great to join Tanya Plibersek in her electorate of Sydney to visit Bridge Housing. Housing Australia and Homes NSW have partnered to support Bridge Housing to acquire an existing boarding house to convert into much needed crisis accommodation. Bridge Housing is an organisation that’s doing incredible work across Tanya's electorate and beyond.

A true highlight of this job is meeting inspiring advocates like Imogen, Atlas, and Oli. Despite facing unimaginable challenges, they remain positive, fierce, and determined to ensure other young people don't experience homelessness. Their strength and passion are truly inspiring. Thank you for courageously sharing your stories. Thanks also Melbourne City Mission (MCM) for organising this visit and hosting the Parliamentary Friends of Housing event last week with Homelessness Australia, Mission Australia, The Salvation Army Australia, and Community Housing Industry Association. And a big thanks to co-chairs Josh Burns MP, Angie Bell MP, and Senator David Pocock.

The Home Time Youth Housing Coalition has been at Parliament House this week, advocating to remove the youth housing penalty from our social housing system and open up tenancies for young people. Currently, less than 3% of social housing tenants are under 25 while more than 40,000 15-24 year-olds are homeless each year. Thanks to all the parliamentarians and advisers who have met with us over the last three days. Yesterday, the community sector came together with the Minister for Housing and Homelessness Clare O'Neil and other federal parliamentarians to launch this new research from the University of New South Wales (UNSW). The call to action from this research is to create equal opportunity for young people by removing the financial barriers currently built into our housing system. This is an achievable, targeted and cost-effective goal that we hope to see implemented in the year ahead. Attendees heard from Imogen and Atlas, two young people who spoke powerfully about their personal experiences and what needs to change to fix youth housing. They asked why nothing is done about vulnerable kids who are living and dying in Australia’s homelessness system. The event also heard from Homelessness Australia, Community Housing Industry Association, Melbourne City Mission (MCM), Mission Australia and the hosts of Parliamentary Friends of Housing, Josh Burns - Federal Member for Macnamara , David Pocock and Angie Bell. Thank you to everyone who spoke and attended. #HomeTime #FixHousingForYoungPeople

Our Journey: From Amélie Housing to St Vincent de Paul Society Housing Australia Established in 2012 as a Special Work by the Society of St Vincent de Paul, we began as Amélie Housing. Our vision was clear: to complement the Society’s charitable services by providing Social and Affordable Housing for those in need. Today, as St Vincent de Paul Society Housing Australia, we’re proud to carry forward this mission on a national scale. Learn more: https://loom.ly/HcmTdQU #SVDPSHA #StVincentdePaulSociety #Vinnies #Australia

It’s not every day SGCH has a customer turn 100! We were privileged to join in the celebrations for Shirley, who still lives independently at our Greenway property – it has been her home since 1959. A witness to the Harbour Bridge being opened, she has seen profound change at Greenway and beyond. “My mother and I moved in because our home was being demolished,” she says. “Greenway was nice and new then, and we were happy to have somewhere to move to, even if was just one bedroom that we shared.”      From the unit she has now, Shirley enjoys a view of the harbour and says she appreciates it every day. “I love to see the big cruise ships come in and go out.”      One of the things she likes most about Greenway is her neighbours. “I am lucky to have had so many good neighbours over the years,” she says. On the secret to reaching 100, Shirley has this to share: “I never married, never had children!” She also had some good old-fashioned sibling rivalry to spur her on. “I always wanted to be the first in my family to get to 100. My sister made it to two months before her 100th birthday, she almost beat me to it. I woke up this morning and I thought, 'well, I did it!’”     At SGCH, we work hard to place our customers at the heart of everything we do and we're proud of the strong partnerships that make Greenway the thriving community it is today.    #greatplaces #thrivingpeople #connectedcommunities #communityhousing