Dandenong South-based Alapont Development has donated a brand-new house in Pakenham to homelessness agency WAYSS for families in need.
This is a partnership between the State Government, local council, private developers and community organisations like WAYSS to help secure families in stable permanent housing.
Alapont Development director Miguel Alapont’s family migrated to Greater Dandenong from Spain in the 80’s where he attended Lyndale Primary School and Lyndale Secondary College.
His father, who had to choose to open his bakery either on Chapel Street or Dandenong, chose the latter due to its diversity and it prospered for 30 years.
Mr Alapont says he always wanted to give back to the community now that he’s thriving in life as a builder and developer.
“I always wanted to do something but have been sceptical of a lot of the non-for-profits as to how much money get to the actual people.
“I’ve got three boys, and I can’t imagine if they didn’t have somewhere to sleep, or they didn’t know where their next meal was coming from, or if they had the right stuff for school.
“I had the opportunity to do something, and I did.
“This option was a win-win for both me and WAYSS.”
WAYSS homelessness and housing support manager Shari McPahil says they are pleased to be the recipient and look forward to similar projects.
“It’s a terrific partnership. We need partnerships in order to grow the amount of stock that we have that’s affordable for people on low incomes and are disadvantaged.
“We can’t do it on our own. We need to be working with all levels of government including local council and very, very generous developers.”
The unique partnership from community to the government level and private sector sees developers benefit from tax incentives and land tax discounts for eligible projects.
In July this year, 74 people was homeless in Greater Dandenong, a rise of 21 per cent since February (61).
Of them, 46 were ‘sleeping rough’ this winter.
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.
