PRIVATE sector support has helped unlock $7 million in government funding to enable the launch of the Wyn Carr House project in Fremantle, delivering transitional accommodation for women over 55 facing homelessness.
The Housing All Australians (HAA) project was made possible through several private benefactors, with over $1 million in pro-bono services and materials secured from more than 30 private sector organisations.
The refurbished facility will be operated by Uniting WA and will deliver 12 ensuite rooms, including one that is disability-accessible, with shared living spaces and support services.
The private sector contribution included Cox Architects, who provided extensive pro-bono design services and utilised their network for material donations. While RPS provided ongoing project management support.
Additionally, more than a dozen professional services firms delivered pro-bono support, utilising expertise across architecture, heritage, town planning, surveying, and engineering.
And more than 20 businesses contributed materials at cost or pro-bono.
“This project exemplifies what’s possible when the private sector takes the lead in addressing our housing crisis,” said Lee Rossetto, chair of HAA’s WA State Management Committee.
“By bringing together values-aligned businesses to contribute their expertise and resources, we created the momentum needed to transform an empty building into a home for vulnerable women.”
Despite 45% of women and girls seeking help for homelessness are doing so because of violence, a report by Homelessness Australia found just 3% of the tens of thousands of women and children fleeing family and domestic violence who came to homelessness services received long-term housing assistance.
While three million Australians in total are now at risk of homelessness, reflecting a 63% surge since 2016, with homelessness services overwhelmed and increasingly having to turn people away
Last year, the Social Housing Economic Recovery Package Grants Program allocated $2,537,265 in funding to the the Wyn Carr House project, which brought total department of communities funding up to $3,037,265.
