Elizabeth Street Common Ground

Last updated

Elizabeth Street Common Ground Supportive Housing in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia is a supportive housing project that will provide 161 individuals and families with homes in Elizabeth Street, Melbourne by September 2010.

Contents

The project is a partnership between the Victorian government [1] which has provided the majority of capital funding; the Federal Government, which has provided capital funding under the ‘A Place to Call Home’ program; [2] the Victorian Property Fund; Yarra Community Housing, [3] a registered housing association, as owner and landlord; HomeGround Services, a registered housing provider and the support services manager; and construction company Grocon, who are constructing the development at cost. Other partners are providing support through in-kind and pro bono services and funding for support services.

Elizabeth Street Common Ground will be an eleven storey building providing 131 homes based on the Common Ground model of supportive housing and another 30 affordable homes available to families. The building will provide operational offices for partner organisations as well as community facilities for tenants and a green roof garden.

Supportive Housing

Elizabeth Street Common Ground Supportive Housing is based on a model of supportive housing known as the Common Ground model. This has been adapted from its original form in the US to suit Melbourne’s particular conditions.

Common Ground housing aims to provide a safe, secure, affordable and permanent housing option to people who have experienced chronic homelessness. Specifically, the project seeks to reduce the number of chronically homeless in Melbourne by providing a place where services are located on-site and support is provided in relation to mental health services, employment assistance and medical referrals. It is a facility with 24-hour concierge services, providing a permanent home. Each tenant will be linked to specific support services to suit their needs and situation.

Supportive housing has proven to be an effective solution to ending chronic homelessness for people who have high and complex needs and who have struggled to access and maintain housing in the past.

Common Ground New York

Elizabeth Street Common Ground Supportive Housing project has connections with Common Ground (NYC).

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Docklands, Victoria</span> Suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Docklands, also known as Melbourne Docklands, is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km (1.2 mi) west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. Docklands recorded a population of 15,495 at the 2021 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Port Melbourne</span> Suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Port Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km (2 mi) south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Melbourne and Port Phillip local government areas. Port Melbourne recorded a population of 17,633 at the 2021 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fitzroy, Victoria</span> Suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Fitzroy is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km (1.9 mi) north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Yarra local government area. Fitzroy recorded a population of 10,431 at the 2021 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richmond, Victoria</span> Suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Richmond is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km (1.9 mi) east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Yarra local government area. Richmond recorded a population of 28,587 at the 2021 census, with a median age of 34.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Socialist Action (Australia)</span> Political party in Australia

Socialist Action, known until October 2019 as the Socialist Party, was a Trotskyist political party in Australia. It published a monthly magazine called The Socialist which contained a socialist perspective on news and current issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queen Victoria Village</span>

Queen Victoria Village, generally known as QV Melbourne or just QV, is a precinct in the Melbourne central business district, Victoria, Australia. Covering the city block bounded by Lonsdale, Little Lonsdale, Swanston, and Russell Streets, and located directly opposite the State Library of Victoria and Melbourne Central, QV comprises a large shopping centre, a central plaza, an underground food court, Melbourne central city's first full-size supermarket and apartment buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yarra Park</span>

Yarra Park is part of the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct, the premier sporting precinct of Victoria, Australia. Located in Yarra Park is the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and numerous sporting fields and ovals, including the associated sporting complexes of Melbourne and Olympic Parks. The park and sporting facilities are located in the inner-suburb of East Melbourne. In the late 1850s, many of the earliest games of Australian rules football were played at Yarra Park, which was known at the time as the Richmond Paddock.

Supportive housing is a combination of housing and services intended as a cost-effective way to help people live more stable, productive lives, and is an active "community services and funding" stream across the United States. It was developed by different professional academics and US governmental departments that supported housing. Supportive housing is widely believed to work well for those who face the most complex challenges—individuals and families confronted with homelessness and who also have very low incomes and/or serious, persistent issues that may include substance use disorders, mental health, HIV/AIDS, chronic illness, diverse disabilities or other serious challenges to stable housing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homelessness in Australia</span> Overview of homelessness in Australia

Homelessness in Australia is a social issue concerning the number of people in Australia that are considered to be homeless. There are no internationally agreed upon definitions of homelessness, making it difficult to compare levels of homelessness across countries. A majority of people experiencing homelessness long-term in Australia are found in the large cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. It is estimated that on any given night approximately 116,000 people will be homeless and many more are living in insecure housing, "one step away from being homeless". A person who does not obtain any shelter is often described as sleeping 'rough'.

Housing First is a policy that offers unconditional, permanent housing as quickly as possible to homeless people, and other supportive services afterward. It was first discussed in the 1990s, and in the following decades became government policy in certain locations within the Western world. There is a substantial base of evidence showing that Housing First is both an effective solution to homelessness and a form of cost savings, as it also reduces the use of public services like hospitals, jails, and emergency shelters. Cities like Helsinki and Vienna in Europe have seen dramatic reductions in homelessness due to the adaptation of Housing First policies, as have the North American cities Columbus, Ohio, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Medicine Hat, Alberta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public housing in Australia</span> Government supported housing in Australia

Public housing in Australia is provided by departments of state governments. Australian public housing operates within the framework of the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement, by which funding for public housing is provided by both federal and state governments. According to the 2006 census, Australia's public housing stock consisted of some 304,000 dwellings out of a total housing stock of more than 7.1 million dwellings, or 4.2% of all housing stock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breaking Ground</span> Nonprofit organization in New York City

Breaking Ground, formerly Common Ground, is a nonprofit social services organization in New York City whose goal is to create high-quality permanent and transitional housing for the homeless. Its philosophy holds that supportive housing costs substantially less than homeless shelters — and many times less than jail cells or hospital rooms, and that people with psychiatric and other problems can better manage them once they are permanently housed and provided with services. Since its founding in 1990 by Rosanne Haggerty, the organization has created more than 5,000 units of housing for the homeless. "This is about creating a small town, rather than just a building," according to Haggerty. "It's about a real mixed society, working with many different people." Haggerty left the organization in 2011 to found Community Solutions, Inc. Brenda Rosen was promoted from Director, Housing Operations and Programs to Executive Director, and has led the organization since.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Housing Commission of Victoria</span>

The Housing Commission of Victoria was a Victorian State Government body responsible for public housing in Victoria, Australia. It was established in 1938, and was abolished in 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grocon</span> Australian privately owned development, construction and funds management company

Grocon is an Australian privately owned development, construction and funds management company. Founded in Melbourne in 1948, it expanded to operate in India and the Middle East. In November 2020, parts of the company were placed in voluntary administration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homelessness</span> Living in housing that is below standard or nonexistent

Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are:

Kentucky Housing Corporation (KHC), the Kentucky state housing agency, was created by the 1972 Kentucky General Assembly to provide affordable housing opportunities. KHC is a self-supporting, public corporation.

Launch Housing is a secular Melbourne-based community organisation that delivers homelessness services and housing supports to disadvantaged Victorians.

Melbourne South was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Victoria from 1889 to 1904.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emporium Melbourne</span> Shopping mall in Victoria, Australia

Emporium Melbourne is a luxury shopping centre on the corner of Lonsdale and Swanston streets in Melbourne, Australia. Occupying the former Lonsdale Street site of Myer's Melbourne store, Emporium opened in 2014 following extensive redevelopment. The centre includes a food court, specialty stores and several multi-level anchor retailers, as well as a top floor extension of Myer's Bourke Street store. Emporium forms part of a 188,000 square metres (2,020,000 sq ft) precinct of linked shopping centres in the Melbourne central business district, which also includes the Myer and David Jones city stores, Melbourne Central, General Post Office and Elizabeth Street's The Strand.

References

  1. "Victorian government Elizabeth Street Common Ground announcement". Victorian government. 2009. Retrieved 5 May 2010.[ dead link ]
  2. "Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs release". Australian government. 2008. Retrieved 5 May 2010.
  3. "Yarra Community Housing website". Yarra Community Housing. 2009. Retrieved 5 May 2010.

Coordinates: 37°48′10″S144°57′30″E / 37.80278°S 144.95833°E / -37.80278; 144.95833