ACHO Sector Strengthening Project – Coolabaroo Housing Service
Clint Uink and Ellie Morrissey of Shelter WA’s Aboriginal Community Housing Organisation (ACHO) Sector Strengthening Project recently paid a visit to Gosnells to meet with Moorditch Gurlongga Association, also known as Coolabaroo Housing Service.
Long-term Housing
Coolabaroo Housing Service manage 17 properties. The service provides transitional housing to 15 Aboriginal individuals/families in the Gosnells to Armadale region, as well as weekly case management for clients to develop their goals and to empower them to achieve the ultimate goal of securing long-term housing.
Clients may stay in Coolabaroo homes for 24 months under the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement (NHHA), and the case management program is funded through the Department of Communities – Family Services (DCFS).
At the meeting, Shelter WA heard from CEO Joanne Della Bona about the struggles to meet the demand for housing in the community.
[L-R] Clint Uink and Ellie Morrissey, Shelter WA, with Coolabaroo Housing Service team members Paul Henry, Diane and Anthony Abraham
“We operate transitional housing but the rental market is so difficult right now that some families end up staying for longer,” she said. “We don’t want to make one family homeless in order to house another.”
“They are doing multiple jobs.”
Joanne expressed the need for more resources for the Aboriginal Community Housing sector, “we have the solutions, not the resources and our staff are so stretched, they are each doing multiple jobs.”
Joanne is hopeful that the appetite to help Aboriginal people driven by the housing target for Closing the Gap will lead to more initiatives in the area of housing supply and greater homelessness support funding for ACCOs. In particular, she said, the development of a peak body for the sector in WA, as outlined in the Department of Communities’ ATSICCHO Strategy Discussion Paper, would be positive in highlighting issues to Government.
Further Information
Shelter WA’s ACHO Sector Strengthening Project is currently focusing on connecting with ACHOs to understand how we can help strengthen the sector, enable peer to peer knowledge sharing, resource exchange and relationship building between ACHOs.
Get in touch by emailing ellie.morrissey@shelterwa.org.au if you are interested in hearing more about the project or if you are an ACCO that provides property and tenancy management services in WA and would like to be involved in the project.
