Helping homeless women into housing

The NSW Government has given a much-needed funding boost to an innovative project to provide supported transitional accommodation to women aged over 55 experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness on the Central Coast.

Allawah House is a former disused aged care facility which has been transformed into 14 safe and secure rooms to give older women a safe place to stay before they move into longer-term housing.

Under the first round of the Homelessness Innovation Fund (HIF), the project received an injection of $275,000 to enable 12 months of specialist services to be provided at the site, the location of which is undisclosed for safety reasons.

The supported transitional accommodation is being delivered thanks to a partnership between Pacific Link Housing, Women’s Community Shelters and Homes NSW to help women over 55 years of age to secure long-term affordable housing.

Minister for Housing and Homelessness Rose Jackson visited the facility recently.

“I was inspired by the sense of community they’ve created as well as their incredible achievements, with 80% of residents moving straight on into their own long-term home,” Jackson said.

“The house has been created under a meanwhile use arrangement, with Pacific Link Housing and Women’s Community Shelters joining forces to use a property that would otherwise be sitting vacant.

“The project has been made possible thanks to the game-changing Homelessness Innovation Fund which is about giving short and sharp support to trusted organisations, helping to address the homelessness crisis while we build more homes.”

Pacific Link Housing Group CEO Ian Lynch said Allawah House demonstrated that temporary solutions could create lasting change when the right partners came together.

“It’s a powerful example of what’s possible when government, community housing providers, support services and property owners collaborate,” he said.

“Thanks to funding support from Homes NSW and our continuing partnership with Women’s Community Shelters, we’ve been able to deliver safety, dignity and real pathways forward for vulnerable women in our community.”

Women’s Community Shelters CEO Annabelle Daniel said at Allawah House, women could access not only immediate safety but also all the critical assistance, help and collaboration they needed to build a positive future.

“We know that older women are more at risk of homelessness – last year, the average age of our residents was 67 – but we also helped celebrate a resident’s 84th birthday,” she said.

“Our model of repurposing vacant properties that would otherwise be under-used and turning them into safe and supported ‘meanwhile use housing’ produces outstanding outcomes for our residents.”

The Government’s $100M Homelessness Innovation Fund is delivering targeted grants for reforming temporary accommodation and service reform, with $30M provisionally allocated for the 2024/25 financial year.

The grants are open to accredited homelessness services and registered Community Housing Providers (CHPs), Aboriginal Community Housing Providers (ACHPs), or other organisations on the pathway to accreditation or registration.

Round three of the fund is now open and accepting applications until April 30 with eligible organisations encouraged to apply.

The Homelessness Innovation Fund is a key component of the $6.6B Building Homes for NSW program, which will also build 8,400 new homes for public housing, deliver 21,000 new affordable and market homes and upgrade 30,000 social housing properties.