Beecroft House is an innovative new housing project providing safe and secure transitional housing for women over 55. The project has garnered an incredible amount of community support, enabling it to succeed.
The house will provide stable accommodation to up to 20 women who are facing financial hardship or homelessness. They will receive the support needed to eventually transition to permanent housing solutions.
The idea for Beecroft House came about after Twilight Aged Care approached Women’s Community Shelters about using their vacant Aged Care Facility in Beecroft.
Simone Parsons, COO of Women’s Community Shelters says, “We received a phone call one day saying ‘we want to talk to you about an opportunity to use a vacant facility to help women who are homeless’, and saw it as an incredible opportunity to develop more accommodation for women in our community who need stable housing and support.”
The project is a unique collaboration with Women’s Community Shelters, Link Housing, National Projects & Maintenance, The Generous & The Grateful and has been enabled by Twilight Aged Care.
“The generosity of the community and our project partners has turned an empty Aged Care Facility into a comfortable and welcoming home in just a couple of months,” said Simone Parsons.
In the last forty days, over 190 volunteers have invested in the project, over 180 hours have been spent cleaning the house and they have received donations from over 150 donors. The community have provide furniture, ironing boards, games, quilts and many other items that each woman will take with them for their own home when they leave the shelter.
Julian Leeser recently visited Beecroft House to donate some goods and see the project’s progress, “It’s incredible to see how the community has rallied around this project, with businesses, organisations and schools enabling the project to succeed.”
Women will begin to move into the shelter in a couple of weeks when the house is completed.
Beecroft House is still welcoming donations from the community.
There is hope that there may be more opportunities for projects just like this to provide the support and housing need for those who are most vulnerable in our community.
