Mary-Faeth Chenery
Last week at its AGM, Safe Place Homes Inc reflected on its five years of work to date. Safe Place is a small group of Hepburn Shire community members who, in the face of the growing crisis of the shortage of affordable housing, have maintained their commitment to try to find workable ways to end homelessness in the Shire and to ease the burden of unaffordable housing for those who have a home but are under extreme financial pressure to be able to stay in it.
Safe Place arose from David Hall’s concern about the pending homelessness of residents of the local caravan park about six years ago. David set a high bar for success in Safe Place – he wants to be there when the first person is given the keys to a home that has been facilitated by Safe Place. That hasn’t happened yet, though it’s probably a lot closer.
It’s closer because of the knowledge Safe Place has gained over the five years about housing and how it works, about homelessness and its prevalence, about the housing industry, the social housing sector, and the role of the planning scheme.
Various Safe Place members have taken the initiative to make a difference in the housing supply. Peter Duncan bought land in Creswick, got a planning permit, worked endlessly with a community housing provider to get government funding to build affordable homes there and then passed it along to another community housing provider to continue the challenging journey to making more homes available.
David Evans, with Trevor Shard assisting, created a charity, Homeward Housing, to find and provide funding and drive housing projects forward. Jim Foster, through the Daylesford Foundation, has collaborated with Safe Place to try to help community members find and keep homes. Other community members throughout the townships have taken roles in Safe Place and helped the work move forward.
Safe Place recognises the scale of the housing problem and the many miles yet to go. But some key stepping stones have been reached over their five years of work. Partly as a result of advocacy by Safe Place Homes, Hepburn Shire Council has developed a housing policy and housing strategy and have allocated funding for a Housing Officer, a osition which is currently being filled. which specified a housing officer. Safe Place has regular meetings with Ron Torres, the Shire’s Executive Manager Development, to talk planning and housing matters.
Safe Place has worked with community housing providers – Haven Home Safe, Women’s Property Initiatives and Wintringham – and with housing agencies like Child and Family Services. Homes are on the way, even if not built quite yet.
Safe Place is now a regular participant in the Community Support and Services Network, convened by Council, which meets every four months to share knowledge and needs and resources among the many service providers in the shire.
The community in the shire is much more aware of the housing needs here, partly because of the huge increase in media coverage.
Housing is now the first category in each of the newly minted structure plans for the townships in the Shire which reflects both the need and the increased awareness.
Safe Place sponsored research on housing needs and contributed to that research, most recently on homelessness as observed through the neighbourhood centres in each of the townships. The data are used to make the case for the need for affordable housing.
Safe Place has networked with neighbouring shires, trying to learn from their successes – from Mt Alexander Shire’s Housing Officer, Clare Richards, and their My Home Network coordinator, Carolyn Nielson, and from the Macedon Ranges housing coordinator and early researcher for Safe Place, Lenka Thompson.
Karl Fitzgerald’s initiative, Grounded, which aims to lower the cost of housing by having community land trusts hold the land, is a collaborator with Safe Place to find housing solutions in the shire.
Central Highlands Rural Health and the Daylesford Community Op Shop help Safe Place and the community stay in touch with the urgent needs.
In September of this year, Safe Place agreed to develop a plan for the coming year to focus on creating infill housing in our communities. They expect to develop an educational program and possibly a model project to demonstrate the possibilities for downsizing, for collaborative housing and for affordable housing in a range of sizes. The work will focus on more affordable housing on a small scale suitable to the small towns, that preserves what community members care about (among other things, the beautiful old trees) while responding to the great need for more smaller scale affordable housing and for fostering a sense of community.
Safe Place wants to see Hepburn Shire be an exemplar, to lead the way in community focused housing and affordable housing. That’s a big challenge for a small group like Safe Place.
Community members who might be interested in joining in the work of Safe Place are welcome to contact Mary-Faeth Chenery via mf@forthegoodofall.org
Mary-Faeth Chenery is the President, Safe Place Homes Inc. Safe Place advocates for social and affordable housing in Hepburn Shire.
