Madden House opened the week before Christmas, offering permanent homes to our first five renters. Several SCH staff gave up their own holiday plans to work across Christmas and New Year, ensuring that the newly housed residents felt supported and safe from day one.
Three months on, the property is fully tenanted. People are settling in, building relationships with neighbours and with staff from St Kilda Community Housing, Ngwala Willumbong and VincentCare. Belongings have been unpacked. Routines are forming. The process of recovery is underway.
Every resident came to us through the Port Phillip By-Name List — a system that tracks and prioritises people sleeping rough, ensuring they access housing and support in order of need and vulnerability. There were around 80 people on the Port Phillip list, though on any given night only around 50 were actually sleeping rough — others may be in emergency accommodation, staying temporarily with friends, or otherwise off the streets for short periods.
Madden House, in practical terms, halved rough sleeping in Port Phillip overnight. Ending rough sleeping is now within our reach.
We are already hearing it from the community: the streets feel quieter, people feel safer, and services are seeing real change in people they have sometimes worked alongside for decades.
Rough sleeping is dangerous, inhumane, and fixable. People forced to live their private lives in public are frequently the victims of crime, violence and discrimination. Chronic rough sleeping reduces life expectancy by decades. Housing people saves lives. It really is that simple.
St Kilda Community Housing is now focused on housing the remaining local rough sleepers in the community. If you want to help, please get in touch.