Anglicare Sydney plans to quadruple their housing stock to serve disadvantaged members of the community, increasing their holdings from 1,000 to 4,000 units within a decade.
Their new Group Executive – Housing, Rob Stokes, a former Cabinet minister in the NSW Parliament and chair of Faith Housing Australia presented their plans to the Sydney Anglican Synod.
“The prophet Micah gives us a picture of what human flourishing looks like in a vision:I at Micah 4:4 he wrote, ‘Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own big and no one will make them afraid.’ At Anglicare, that verse inspires our housing vision. A safe and affordable home is not simply to shelter. It’s the foundation for dignity, trust, stability, and for hope. The need for such homes, affordable homes is stark… Anglicare’s affordable rental housing snapshot surveyed more than 51,000 rental properties across the country. Of those more than 51,000 homes, If you are in an old age pension, just 165 of those across the whole country, regardless of where you live, are affordable. Statistics like this demonstrated that the housing crisis is present and it’s real.
“That is why Anglicare has committed to a bold goal to grow a housing portfolio from just around thousand today, fourfold over the next decade to be at least 4,000 by 2035.
“But this is not just about numbers. Each home represents a life changed, a person no longer facing the fear of eviction, a family no longer living out of the back of their car, an older woman not having to make a choice between paying her rent, paying her car, or paying for food to eat. We’re passionate about this mission because we believe homes raise hope up in our nation and hope in turn is what transforms lives. For almost 107 years, Anglicare has served people at the margins of our city and our society. Today our housing is home mostly to older women like Chris [a n Anglicare renter] who live alone and are at risk for poverty and isolation. But our vision today is even broader.
“We’re focusing on three core groups within the need, especially older people at risk of homelessness, women and children escaping domestic violence and key workers like age care workers who increasingly can’t afford to live near the communities they serve.
“We are well placed to meet these needs because we integrate housing. We wrap around support: chaplaincy… food relief, financial counselling that help people not just survive but thrive.
“So how will we grow from almost a thousand homes to 4,000? Our strategy is both ambitious and practical. It’s built on four pathways, which will tell you briefly now for examples of existing projects.
“First, we build at Arista Mount Driutt (pictured), we constructed new housing that provides safety, affordability, and connection, leveraging subsidy from the government. This is a model of how we can create whole communities in target areas of need.
“Second, we partner. At St Pauls’s Bankstown. We’re working hand in hand with Sydney Anglican property to deliver more homes alongside new church and ministry facilities. Partnerships like these expand our reach, multiply our impact, and provide a community of care and a Christian witness literally on your doorstep.
Third, we buy, this is 1 Santley cresent Kingwood, where we’ve rescued affordable housing stock that would have otherwise been lost to the private market, giving key workers nearby employment centres like Anglicare retirementvillage Caddens and Nepean hospital, more affordable housing options near where they work.
“And fourth, we convert. At St. David’s Village Forestville(pictured), we are transforming former retirement units into affordable homes, and we do love a conversion.
“These four pathways to build, to partner, to buy and to convert are the engine that will take us from a thousand to 4,000 by 2035 Anglicare’s Housing vision is more though than just about the bricks and the mortar. It’s about creating spaces where people can find safety, stability, dignity and belonging. It’s about as Micah prophesied a safe home in which no one will be afraid, providing the glimpse of the hope of the world to come with God’s help. And we support partners and friends like you. We believe that by 2035, at least 4,000 households will be able to call an Anglicare home care their home. That’s the scale of our ambition. That’s the depth of our passion and that’s the hope. “
Rob Stokes in his role as chair of Faith Housing Australia will be awaye that Anglicare’s program fits alongside the work of Mission Australia, BaptistCare and the Uniting Church and many others.
So here’s a couple of examples. Kitty Doyle Apartments inj Five Dock, Inner West Sydney is a project of BaptistCare housing a thriving community of seniors.
Nightingale Marrickville, came about with the Churches of Christ in NSW and ACT who providing the 99-year ground lease to Fresh Hope Communities to continue their legacy of serving the local community of Marrickville. Nightingale Housing is a not-for-profit organisation delivering homes that are socially, financially and environmentally sustainable, originally based in Melbourne.
Mission Australia has broken ground on a new facility in Toowoomba, Queensland to provide 185 units for social and affordable housing. The project will include four, five to six-storey apartment buildings comprising of 89 social housing dwellings and 96 affordable housing dwellings. Mission Australia own or manage 5,000 dwellings around Australia and they have a target to get to 10,000 in the next five years.
Together, the Christians in Australia are working to help solve a major problem in Australia, the dire shortage of social and affordable housing.