20 December 2013

Sod turned for Common Ground

| johnboy
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Chief Minister Gallagher has joined with Mayor Rattenbury to kick off construction for a Common Ground homelessness facility:

Construction has commenced on what will be one of Canberra’s most significant projects to address homelessness, providing affordable and stable accommodation and support services to the most vulnerable in the community.

Chief Minister, Katy Gallagher, and Minister for Housing, Shane Rattenbury, this morning officially launched construction of the Common Ground facility, which is a key item in the Labor-Greens Parliamentary Agreement and major initiative of the ACT Government.

“Common Ground is a housing model that provides permanent homes and the support to help individuals achieve stability and improvement in their lives,” said the Chief Minister.

“Using a Housing First approach, Common Ground takes people direct from homelessness and follows through with the support they require to stay housed, improve their health and live independently.

“An initiative that started in New York, Common Ground is proven and effective model of responding to homelessness and has since been successful in many other cities across Australia and the world, including Melbourne and Adelaide,” said Mr Rattenbury.

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Any moves to provide more housing for the homeless/at risk/etc is welcome, so I don’t want to seem too negative. The ACT already provides more housing per capita than the surrounding area, and the net effect of that is homeless people and those facing the prospect of homelessness move to Canberra and put themselves on the waiting list knowing they are far more likely to get housed here and to get it sooner. NSW intentionally gets a free ride on the ACTs back as regards Govt housing.

I couldn’t get the link to work so my gripe may actually be unjustified but ……

I’m surprised this media release doesn’t mention Liz D (surname ?) who is, I believe, the central advocate/agitator for Common Ground (they have a couple of other projects floating about targeted towards social housing occupants and assisting with employability). I believe she was there today ‘turning the sod’ with Captain Gallagher. I don’t know Liz or others behind Common Ground, but I do think credit needs to be assigned to community/grass roots activism when it is warranted, maybe simply because it gives the rest of us hope that our ideas could one day become a reality.

Great work, everyone.

Sounds very good. Well done to all those who done it.

wildturkeycanoe4:39 pm 20 Dec 13

This has got to be one of the very, very few stories about our government not wasting money on useless projects. I applaud this initiative and feel better about paying my rates and taxes.

HiddenDragon3:20 pm 20 Dec 13

Heartening news, and hopefully this will eventually mean a much happier new year for some.

Sounds like a great programme, as does the safe shelter church one written about on here recently, which is providing a place for homeless people to sleep:

http://the-riotact.com/safe-shelter-pleased-with-pilot/121167

Hopefully some people will be able to be referred from the overnight one to one of the flats, when they actually exist.

We need a lot more of these sorts of schemes.

Geez JohnBoy , you could have printed up it was being built out at Gungadini..!

Would have saved a lot of rioters breaking out into a sweat thinking it might be next to thei…

And a good spot for a worthwhile project as Gungadin has been looking for govy structures.

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