Supporter Magazine: Autumn 2021

Welcoming tenants into their new homes AnglicareSA has welcomed the first tenants through the With a list of health and mobility issues exacerbated by his experience of

project, which provided bed linen and kitchen utensils. Safe, secure, and sustainable social housing has provided Ces the opportunity to manage his health issues, give back to the community that he loves and spend time with his grandchildren at home. He is now exploring volunteering opportunities.

homelessness, the program advocated for Ces to find a property that could support his needs. Before long, he was offered a property though AnglicareSA Housing. ‘’After years of working with people down and out, it’s hard when you get to that stage yourself. So, when they showed me through the house, I just couldn’t believe it – I nearly cried.” All properties in AnglicareSA’s 10-year social and affordable housing development program are built to the NDIS ‘improved liveability’ design standard. This means Ces’s new home is equipped with wider doorways and stepless entry to support him age in place and to live his best life. Through the generosity of the Aged Persons Welfare Foundation grant, Ces received a fridge and other white goods to help set up his new home. He was further supported by AnglicareSA’s Quickest Warmth

doors of its nine new social and affordable housing properties in Adelaide’s west and north. Uncle Cecil, or ‘Ces’ as he is affectionately known, was handed the keys to one of the three new homes in the north. After decades of working in the South Australian community helping others, Ces suffered a heart attack, had quintuple bypass surgery, and began experiencing depression, which can often develop following a heart attack. He soon found himself couch surfing, sleeping in his car and in desperate need of a safe and stable place to call home. It was in 2020 when AnglicareSA’s Assistance with Care and Housing program, which supports older people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness find affordable housing, first learned of Ces’s situation. Creating homes and communities Cecil’s new home was part of the first of multiple redevelopment projects in the north and west under AnglicareSA’s 10-year social and affordable housing plan. AnglicareSA has also recently completed the redevelopment of an affordable housing block in Mansfield Park, demolishing 14 one-bedroom units built in the 1960s and replacing them with 16 new units. The units are designed to allow residents aged 55 and over to live as independently as possible. Previously the block had limited car parking and shared laundries.

‘’After years of working with people down and out, it’s hard when you get to that stage yourself. So, when they showed me through the house I just couldn’t believe it – I nearly cried.”

Housing SA to AnglicareSA Housing, our teams have been on the ground, working with tenants to build a sense of community. So far, we have coordinated more than 400 events and activities for tenants, providing them with support services, and building on tenants’ feedback of what they are looking for in their community.

Now each unit features stepless entries, wider doorways, an outdoor alfresco area and adjacent car parking. Along with new and improved housing, AnglicareSA is also focussed on building vibrant and inclusive communities with its tenants. Since the management transfer of 479 homes in Adelaide’s north in 2015, and 729 homes in the west in 2017 from

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