Our ‘Make a House a Home’ fund

25 February 2021

Case Manager Julia in our St Kilda Office

New homes for more than 200 people
The Make a House a Home fund
Video
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A home is more than a place. A home is lifelong memories of friends visiting, family barbeques, and shared meals with loved ones: which can be painful reminders beyond the reach of people experiencing homelessness. But, we can turn this dream into a reality.

People are experiencing homelessness and poverty on an unprecedented scale, with COVID-19 massively displacing those who are sleeping rough or suddenly robbing people of their jobs, houses, health and livelihoods.

An unfolding crisis has forced people across the state without a home into hotels and accommodation to keep them safe, which has allowed our GreenLight workers to locate and support notoriously ‘difficult to reach’ people in Victoria for the first time.

We will provide more than 200 people sleeping rough with a home

Breakthroughs are occurring. Our staff are successfully transitioning people sleeping rough out of hotels and off the streets into accommodation, and supporting them to keep them housed.

In 2021, Sacred Heart Mission will provide over 200 people with a home of their own for the very first time. This includes helping more people to move out of temporary hotel rooms as well as continuing to support our Journey to Social Inclusion (J2SI) and GreenLight clients settling into their own home.

People who have lived through trauma deserve a place of their own, which we are making happen with the launch of our new ‘Make a House a Home’ fund.

Our new 'Make a House a Home' fund

When some of the most vulnerable people in our community finally get access to a new house, in order to make that property feel like a home we are helping them with all the essentials: a bed, couch, washing machine and plants, to add to that feeling of ‘welcome’.

We’re buying critical items for people experiencing homelessness to adjust fully into their new home, ensuring it doesn’t feel like an empty shell.

These touches will help make their home a space they’ll always want to return to.

The new fund will remain open to accommodate hundreds of vulnerable peoples’ dreams of settling into their very own home for the first time in their lives.

Giving them the crucial, fresh start, they need to embark on an exciting, new chapter, while we build their independence, goals and ties with their communities.

Make a House a Home - for hundreds of people in our community

Watch our video and learn from Julia, our Supportive Housing Worker, how she supported our client Phil to settle into his new home, thanks to our ‘Make a House a Home’ fund:

Make a house a home

Case manager Julia tells you about our ‘Make a House a Home’ fund and how she worked with Phil so he could turn his new housing into a real home:

Julia: I work with people to find housing, settle in and to connect to their local communities. But when people finally find safe long-term housing, they often don’t have anything to make their house a home. It’s just an empty, lonely space.

Our ‘Make A House A Home’ fund helps people to buy whatever they need to feel at home.

I had the privilege to work with Phil towards the end of last year. His story is an example of how the fund makes a practical difference in people’s lives. Phil is a 56 year old man from Frankston.

After losing his parents and the breakdown of a family relationship, Phil has found it difficult to find work ever since.

He experienced homelessness because there just wasn’t a suitable place that he could afford. So for the last decade, Phil moved from one insecure, unsafe dwelling to the next. And for a long time, he slept in his car.

Then the pandemic hit and the government moved Phil and other people sleeping rough into hotels to keep people safe.

But a hotel is not a home.

When Phil was finally offered a public housing property, I supported him to settle in and connect with his new community.

But our support didn’t stop there. Through the ‘Make A House A Home’ fund, Phil could buy furniture for his house.

I remember how a teammate and I in full PPA, helped Phil move the furniture into his home, a bed, a television, a couch, and more.

Phil has now been living in his home for several months and he’s ready to create a brighter future for himself.

We’ll be working with hundreds more people to move into housing this year, and I urge you to please help them to make a house a home.

Your support will make all the difference to the people in our community. You can help them settle in to their new homes and communities.

Help Phil and others settle into their new homes

Spread happiness where it counts by donating to our new ‘Make a House a Home’ fund, where you’ll make the housing dream come alive for hundreds of people experiencing homelessness.

Donate now