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First residents move in

15 April 2019
Margaret Thorpe, Manager at Sacred Heart Community

The first 29 residents have moved into our new building on 101 Grey Street in St Kilda, marking the first milestone of many as we progress with our most transformational redevelopment in the Mission’s 36-year history.

Since relocating earlier this year, Sacred Heart Community Manager Margaret Thorpe says the residents are settling in well and for most of them, this is the first new, stable home they have ever had.

“Residents have been patiently waiting for their new bedrooms with ensuites and built-in bookcases – this is a big Mission milestone,” Margaret says.

“The new bedrooms are spread across four floors, each level including common areas with an open lounge, dining and kitchen.

“They have been built facing Grey Street, treating residents with a lovely St Kilda view as well as giving them a connection to the hive of activity outside.”

Built on the carpark of our old Grey Street building, the new building also includes a new basement, kitchen, laundry, maintenance workshop, storage area and staff amenities such as showers, toilets and kitchen.

The redevelopment is bringing together five high-quality services and accommodation under the one roof for our ageing community who have experienced homelessness.

Our aged care services are different to other aged care services because we house people from a younger age and 95 per cent of our residents have a history of homelessness, have experienced significant disadvantage or have complex needs.

Tackling homelessness relies on the sustained generosity of our funders, our community and the talents of our capable staff and volunteers, who have believed in this ambitious vision for the future from the start.

From the bottom of our hearts we would like to thank everyone who has generously supported and funded the project.

We must also acknowledge the hard work of Paula Fox, our Campaign Patron as well as Gerry Ryan the Campaign Chair, who have been the driving force behind the One Heart, One Home capital campaign which aimed to raise money from donors for the redevelopment. Together with Derek Young, Kerry Gillespie and Carolyn Clark and the fundraising staff at Sacred Heart Mission, they helped us to raise over $9.2 million in philanthropic and state government support for the project, which is a testament of the generosity of Melburnians and their compassion for those less fortunate.

When complete, the redevelopment will merge our two existing aged care buildings, create a 14-bed supported rooming house, upgrade our expanded clinic that will deliver allied health services, a renovated and extended open-access Women’s House, as well as an administration building that allows the co-location of administration services.

Project 101
Learn more about our redevelopment project