Best wishes for the festive season and thank you for your support!
Season's Greetings from WPI
Thank you for all your support in 2023
On behalf of all of us at WPI, I would like to wish you, and those close to you, all the best for the festive season and a happy and healthy New Year.
WPI continued to pursue an ambitious housing growth strategy throughout a very busy 2023. We are thrilled to have secured 12 of the "25 new homes by 2025" goal that we committed to on our 25th anniversary, and we will have exciting news to share on important funding for a number of additional homes in the very near future.
Every night 54,000 Australian women don't have a home to sleep in. This is the latest shocking figure from the 2021 Census and is a dramatic increase from 49,000 women in 2016. We were very fortunate to have an opportunity to work with Equality Media + Marketing to create a new brand campaign that featured across a range of media in November and December. Massive thanks to our media partners Are Media , Civic Outdoor , QMS , JCDecaux , Broadsheet Melbourne , Rea group , Domain , ARN , Nova 100 + Hardy Audio for their support in spreading this message across Victoria and Australia.
We want to thank every individual and organisation who supported us in 2023. We remain focused on helping more women escape chronic housing insecurity and we couldn't do our work without you. Please read on for some final updates for the year, and of course, please consider a contribution to our end of year appeal.
We hope that you are able to enjoy a break, and spend time with those important to you. We look forward to making contact when we are refreshed in 2024. Please stay safe during the holidays.
Regards
Women’s Property Initiatives set to double its impact with major social housing project
Women and children will be the focus of a major social housing project to be managed by community housing specialists, including Women’s Property Initiatives.
The Victorian Government’s 40-year Ground Lease Model 2 project will deliver 1370 new social, affordable, market rental and specialist disability homes, with WPI a key partner in the successful consortium, Building Communities.
Of the 650 new social homes, WPI will manage 200 homes, providing specialist support to more than 290 vulnerable women and children in female-led households.
WPI Partners With Local Residential
WPI is thrilled to be partnering with Local Residential, a leading Build-to-Rent developer focused on creating positive social impact, to open the doors to more secure and affordable housing for women and children.
Local’s first two projects will see 75 social housing residences delivered through our partnership and their model includes a minimum of 10% social, affordable and specialist disability accommodation in each of its developments.
Commencing at Local’s flagship Kensington project, to be completed in 2024, the first phase of the partnership will deliver 33 apartments for women and children. 22 will be allocated to women and children experiencing insecure housing and 11 to women over 55, which is the fastest growing group of Australians experiencing homelessness. Read more.
There's still time to make a festive season donation
The 2021 Census data shows that on any given night, there are almost 54,000 Australian women who are homeless. You may know one of them.
Give the gift of a secure home this festive season and help WPI achieve its "25 new homes by 2025" goal. We have funded 12 of the 25 and are very close to securing funding for others, but we need your help to reach our goal. Women face inherent financial disadvantage that stems from gender inequality and restricts access to secure and affordable housing. Women earn less than men. They have limits on their ability to work full-time and they spend more time out of the workforce caring for children and the elderly – work that is unpaid and chronically undervalued.
Women like Laura who recently moved into a WPI home with her three young children. Each member of the family has special needs and as a family they have experienced domestic violence. They have been living with Laura’s parents in cramped conditions with Laura sleeping on the couch for over a year. Laura’s parents were incredibly supportive and they were lucky to have this option, but the situation was really stressful and difficult for all of them. They have described their new home as providing “a new life” where they have space and security and an opportunity to put down roots and become involved in the local community.
WPI homes change lives and help to break the the cycle of disadvantage. Please consider a festive season donation to help us reach our goal of delivering 25 more homes for families like Laura’s by 2025.
Tiffany's Story
I lived on a farm for 20 years, up in Rosebank in northern New South Wales. Now I’ve been in Melbourne for about a year and a half.
In between moving from Rosebank to here, there was a three-year gap when I was unable to find accommodation. I was up in the Northern Rivers staying with friends, and then I ended up going to the Gold Coast to move in with my mum. Then I came to Melbourne where I’ve got two adult children, living in share houses. I stayed with a friend, thinking, ‘I’ll be able to get accommodation, easy.’ But then it wasn’t easy at all.
A person from Juno, which is an organisation that helps women experiencing homelessness, got me into emergency accommodation, and then helped me with applying for houses. Then I finally got an interview with WPI, and that’s how I ended up here.
Those three years of being homeless and moving around were very stressful. But in that time I managed to do a course in sound healing, studying online, which kept me going and really helped my mental health. I’m also an artist. Since I’ve been down here, I’ve started doing workshops for women’s circles, including sound healing, dance, and art-making.
I am so happy here. It’s like a dream come true, living right near my older kids. I would never in a million years have thought I’d be in a brand new apartment in such a safe place. It took me a while to actually settle in, because I just couldn’t believe it for so long. I didn’t unpack my bags for a few months. Read more.
Image credit: Amelia Stanwix for the Design Files
