Do you work in the health arena in the Bellingen Shire?
Are you, your employees or colleagues in housing stress?
The home-grown community-led initiative, Homes for Health, has a solution but needs to hear from you to make it work!
Back in March, you may recall, Homes for Health was launched in response to the ongoing closure of Hartley House up at Bellingen Hospital, originally closed since December 2023 due to maintenance issues and a shortage of nurses.
As the closure continued into 2024 and beyond, questions were asked, revealing one of the biggest hurdles to filling vacancies was the crippling shortage of affordable accommodation in the shire.
Responding to the urgency, Bellingen Shire mayor Steve Allen reached out to relevant community groups the Bellinger Health Action Group (BHAG) and the Housing Matters Action Group (HMAG), pulling together a hard-working group that oversaw the creation of Homes for Health (HfH).
A huge turnout of residents at the initiative’s launch on March 2, saw HfH welcomed with open community arms and inundated with offers of accommodation, everything from spare rooms to self contained units.
Volunteers swung into action, vetting offers for their suitability as accommodation for short term student nurses on placement and the longer term needs of nursing staff. Connections were made … and thankfully, Hartley House reopened in June.
HfH then found itself with the peculiarly happy dilemma of having more offers (supply) on their books than the current nursing demand.
While of course celebrating this fortuitous imbalance, HfH coordinator Penny Davidson said the group had to seriously think about how to make the most of the community’s generosity.
“We decided to look beyond the hospital to the demand among other essential health workers in the shire, such as GPs, paramedics and pharmacists, as well as aged care and allied health professionals and their staff,” Penny said.
“In recent weeks our small team of volunteers has been contacting health providers with a survey aimed at understanding this broader housing need … leading to us hopefully matching another round of workers with offers.”
“Right now we are putting a call out to all shire health providers to get in touch if you or your staff is in housing stress … help us to help you!”
For more information please phone Penny on 0411 122 545, email penny@housingmatters.org.au or go to housingmatters.org.au/project/homes-for-health/.