Community Abundance is seeking donors to launch an emergency accommodation initiative in the South East.
The ‘Sleeping Nice’ project aims to address the confronting numbers of rough sleepers in and around the Dandenong Hub Arcade, once a bustling arcade and now a make-shift home for the homeless.
Community Abundance is located in the upper floor of the arcade, where rough sleepers sleep in the hallway, outside its door and sometimes even inside its office space.
Board member and program director, Deng Kor says he was compelled to do something.
“When we leave the office every day in the evening and back the next morning, there’s always people sleeping here in front of the office. I witnessed this for so long.
“You go home, have your dinner, relax and go to bed, sleep in a nice place. But seeing people from my community sleeping rough, you think about their safety. Some of them are family members, like one of my cousins.”
The organisation has secured a plot in Cranbourne and is waiting on a drawing concept to be out in November.
Meanwhile it is advocating to potential donors, local government, business, and the state government to chip in.
The project will provide short to long-term accommodation, 23 apartments and six studio rooms – for a total of 68 rooms.
It will prioritise culturally and linguistically diverse communities, housing families in apartments and young people in rooms.
Mr Kor says the choice of location is to keep some of the rough sleepers distant from Greater Dandenong as many “hunt for other substances.”
He himself has housed four family violence perpetrators in his home saying everyone deserves support and a chance to change.
“You can be good if you get support.
“The majority of the mental health issues start when people sleep rough.
“For human dignity, you just need food, shelter, and clothes in order to maintain your mental health and wellbeing.”
He says the faster they secure donors, the faster they can house some of Greater Dandenong’s rough sleepers, something that has become widespread.
In August this year, 68 people were listed as “actively homeless” in Greater Dandenong, including 46 ‘sleeping rough’.
City of Greater Dandenong was ranked the highest homelessness rate in Victoria in the 2023 census with lack of social and affordable housing a major contributing factor.
Previously, in 2016 Dandenong ranked second out of the 88 electorates in Victoria, with 1118 people without a home.
In 2023, this rose to 1719 people without a home on any given night, the majority housed in overcrowded dwellings, boarding houses and hotels, according to a Council to Homeless Persons report.
