New home for the homeless

Above: Turning the sod- Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Mark Butler, and Minister for Human Services and Social Inclusion, Tanya Plibersek, on the site where a new homeless facility for the aged will be built. (Image: Tom Greenwood / Mission Australia).

Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Mark Butler, has turned the first sod to ceremoniously begin construction of a new nursing home for homeless older people, in Sydney’s inner city suburb of Redfern.

Mission Australia’s new facility will accommodate 72 older people who may otherwise live on the streets, and cater specifically to their unique needs much like Charles Chambers Court in nearby Surry Hills, also run by Mission Australia.

The federal government awarded the project a $16 million grant in July 2009 to build the facility, which replaces a nursing home that previously occupied the site and was closed in 2007 after it failed building code requirements.

Mr Butler said the facility would help deal with the large and growing number of elderly homeless people, which increased by 30 per cent between 2001 and 2009, according to census data.

“I’m very happy to be here turning a sod on the biggest capital project we’ve funded around the country so far,” Mr Butler said.

“This project here in Redfern, which I know has a long history of providing aged care services … is now going to have a long future of providing services to this particularly high needs group.”

Mr Butler also praised the “incredibly important work” done by Minister for Human Services and Social Inclusion, Tanya Plibersek, in her former role as Minister for Housing, which resulted in a 2008 white paper on homelessness entitled The Road Home.

“As a result of Tanya’s white paper … the Aged Care Act was amended to include homeless older Australians as a special needs group within the Act,” he said.

“[…] The government committed to four years of capital grants funding for services like this, specifically directed at older Australians who had either been homeless or were at risk of homelessness.”

Two other aged care facilities that take in homeless people have been built with federal assistance since the white paper was published in 2008, including a 60-bed facility in Dandenong, Victoria and another 44 beds within a mixed-purpose facility in Caboolture, Queensland.

Ms Plibersek helped Mr Butler break the rocky ground of the construction site and praised Mission Australia’s project, which she said would almost double the number of nursing home beds available to homeless people in Sydney.

“It’s a fantastic story about this site, this facility, this organisation, this place and these people. But it's also an important story about what’s happening to homelessness policy in Australia,” Ms Plibersek said.

“We turned a blind eye for much too long, and this group of homeless people are among the most vulnerable.

“[…] They're the amongst the fastest-growing groups but they’re also very physically vulnerable out on the streets, as they age, to all sorts of ill health effects and psychiatric issues, poor nutrition and the long term effects of living rough.”

Mission Australia’s Aged Care Operations Manager, Jill Bicknell, said the new building would feature 12-room pods to allow residents to develop a sense of community while retaining the safety and security of small groups within the larger resident population, while rooftop gardens would provide a safely enclosed outdoor space to smoke or relax with views of the city.

Source: www.australianageingagenda.com.au/2011/05/03/article/New-home-for-the-homeless/IEXIHRRPCS