rooming houses - nwhn · rooming houses women’s housing ltd and wombat housing and support...

Rooming Houses

Women’s Housing Ltd

and Wombat Housing and Support Services

Partnership

Women's Housing Limited and

Wombat Partnership 27/03/13

wombat

housing and support services

Wombat Housing and Support

Services

WHSS provides services to

people who are homeless or at

risk of becoming homeless in

the West of Melbourne.

Programs are provided for

young people, older adults,

families, single adults, people

in public and community/social

housing and people seeking

asylum.



Women’s Housing Ltd Women’s Housing Limited is a

registered Housing Provider.

We are a state wide service.

We manage:

• 108 Transitional Properties

• 96 Community Housing

Properties

• 181 Housing Provider

Framework Tenancies

• Housing Information

• Outreach to the Women’s

prison



Rooming House Program

Women’s Housing Ltd manages

Rooming Houses:

• Ascot Vale

• Berwick

• Brighton

• Mt Martha

• Sunshine



WHL/WOMBAT partnership



Housing Number of

Rooms/Units

Gender

Altona Meadows 12 Mixed Gender

Ascot Vale 13 Men only

Footscray 10 Women only

Kensington 16 Women only

Sunshine 31 Men only

The Partnership

In 2008, Women’s Housing Ltd and WOMBAT entered

into a partnership, where WHL agreed to fund the

Community Support Program through the Community

Capacity Building Fund.

Wombat previously provided the tenancy management

of the Kensington, Footscray, Ascot Vale and Sunshine

sites and these were transferred to WHL stock in 2008

as Wombat’s core business is the provision of housing

support services.



Partnership Agreement Objectives

The overall objective of this Agreement is to collaboratively:

• improve the quality and delivery of services to tenants in

the identified properties,

• enhance the nature and extent of service outputs and

service-user outcomes in close consultation with tenants

of the identified properties, and

• ensure maintenance of existing – and improving/building

on – high standards in Rooming Houses in terms of

amenity.



Responsibilities

Women’s Housing Ltd:

• Property management

• Tenancy management

– Rental management

– Dispute management



WOMBAT:

• Community Development

• Sustaining Tenancies

• Short term Case

Management Support

• SAAP Singles Support

Worker

Partnership Meetings

WHL and WOMBAT meet at regular intervals so that we

can assess the partnership.

• Tenancies that require additional support

• Community development program



Rooming House Meetings

• Regular Meetings are

held with the tenants at

each site.

• Staff from both WHL and

WOMBAT attend these

meetings.



Purpose of Rooming House Meetings

• Allow residents a voice

• Raise issues

• Seek input into community

developments activities

• Discuss community

development activities planned



http://themaisonette.net/kitchen-table-best-kitchen-design-guide-kitchen-gadget-kitchen

The Community Support

Program Aims:

• Reduce Social Isolation

• Enhance Living Skills

• Improve connectedness

between residents

• Provide social/recreational

activities

• Engage/improve access with

local services and community

• Improve Amenity



CSP Projects

• Photography

• Art Therapy, Ceramics, Skill

Sharing

• Health and Wellbeing

• Gardening Projects

• Tenant Newsletter

• Internet Access

• Linkages to local services

• Cooking Classes &Social

Meals

• Outings & excursions Women's Housing Limited and


Gardening Project

• Partnership with Matchworks Employment Services

• Provided a project for their clients who needed a Work

Experience Activity

• Matchworks contributed the co-ordinator, and job

seekers with opportunity to develop landscaping and

gardening skill



Rooming House received a

Community Garden, fruit trees and

landscaped outdoor area which

improved the amenity of the Ridley

St Rooming House

Gardening Project...



Photography Projects

• Housing Week Grant – Portraits of

Rooming House – residents took photos of

each other

• Arts Victoria – “Everyday Treasures” –

exhibition as part of Big West Festival

• Equipment/Cameras are lent to residents

to further develop their love for

photography



Photography projects



Outings/Excursions

• International Garden Show, Tulip

Festival

• Tim Burton and Titanic Exhibition

• Musicals Annie, Hairspray, Wicked

• Fishing Group and Charter

• AFL, Cricket, Ten Pin Bowling

• Go Carting, Movies

• Luna Park, Bellarine Peninsular,

Heidi Museum

• Peninsular Hot Springs, Maulden

Spa

• Mostly Mozart Recitals



http://www.showbiz.com.au/annie/default.html

How do we afford these

activities? GRANTS GRANTS



Tenant Newsletter



Tenants write articles,

crosswords, recipes, movie

reviews, poems or contribute

photographs and

artwork........

Future directions...

For tenants to learn

publishing and

editing skills to take

more ownership of

co-ordinating the

creation of the

quarterly newsletter

Welcome Packs

We provide welcome packs

to all new Rooming

House residents. This is

thanks to a partnership

that we have formed with

Rotary.



Fresh Food

Thanks to the generosity of Second Bite we

are able to provide tenants with some fresh

fruit and vegetables on a weekly basis



http://www.secondbite.org/

Books, books and more books

A very successful

partnership with

Benjamin Andrew

Footpath Library

allows us to supply

new books to all

Rooming Houses.



Internet Access

• Ascot Vale Men’s Only Rooming House

• Small house of 15 residents

• Residents advocated to us that access to the

internet should be seen as a way of reducing

social isolation because of the increased

popularity of social media

• Local Government grant to purchase equipment

• WIFI is now self funded by tenants, though still

co-ordinated through Wombat



Green Renting Exhibition

We partnered with the “Green

Renters” to host a “Green

Renting Exhibition:” at the

Richmond Town Hall.

Many residents were

transported in by bus.

The aim was to seek to reduce

operating costs at the

Rooming Houses.



Challenges and Successes

Challenges

• Engaging with residents

• Motivating residents

• Targeting residents

• Providing relevant activities

• Confusion between roles of

WHL and WOMBAT

Successes

• Builds self esteem

• Providing opportunities

• Develops friendships

• Linking to wider community

• Encourages independence



Future Directions

Review of Program

WHL and Wombat have auspiced

the services of a volunteer to

review our program.

• Written surveys

• Face to face interviews

• Focus Groups

This will help develop our

planning for the future.

Future Projects

• Continuation of photography

workshops

• Applied for a men’s health

grant

• Applied for a women’s health,

well-being and art grant

• Considering a grant involving

film – telling the story of our

tenants



Client Comments

Some of the comments from women that WHL have assisted over the

years:

“My home is important for my ongoing happiness and peace.”

“The staff of Women’s Housing treat me like a person – thank you.”

“Your services gave me the breathing space to focus and move forward

despite the uncertainty of my future at that time. I could relax and feel safe

in having Women’s Housing as my landlord. It was a huge sense of relief

to feel safe and secure. Thank-you for your personal, kind and

understanding approach. Rock solid rendering of services.”





Some feedback from some of our art projects......

"Great pieces of art, fun ,being creative helps my depression heaps and my

self esteem.“

"I got to do something new, meet new people, make new friends and

socialise. I also found that I really like working with clay and making things

that I can give as gift to my family. I found that I'm able to successfully

make things in clay which helped me feel better about myself and showed

me that I can do anything if I only try.”

" A sense of togetherness, satisfaction of seeing

a job through to completion.“

“Yes I have got to know the women better and

gets me out of my room once a week to do

something fun instead of just health

appointments.”

Katrina O’Sullivan

Community Support Worker

WOMBAT Housing and Support Services

191 Melrose Street

North Melbourne 3051

[email protected]

Ph: 8327 2222

Lindy Parker

Operations Manager

Women’s Housing Ltd

Suite 1, 21 Cremorne Street

Cremorne, Victoria, 3121

[email protected]

Ph: 9412 6868



mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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