The Sacred Heart Mission

The Sacred Heart Mission (SHM) is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to helping people experiencing homelessness. The SHM assists hundreds of people each year who are experiencing homelessness or disadvantage to find shelter, food, care, and support, through a raft of various programs such Women's Homes, Aged Care Facilities, Meals Programs and Housing Assistance.

In 2023, the Foundation supported the development of Sacred Heart Mission’s ‘Continuum of Care’. The Continuum of Care (CoC) was established in 2022 and is a three year “demonstration project” aimed at providing an evidence based, bespoke approach to assisting those who are homeless or at risk of being homeless – which will hopefully lead to more stable, long-term housing outcomes. Under the current state government model, homeless individuals are only provided between 6- and 13-weeks support to transition to a home. There is no support available for those who have long-term difficulties adjusting to the responsibilities of their new home (which is common for the long-term homeless), or for those whose occupancy is at risk, and the model does not provide any access to housing stock.

The new approach adopted by the Continuum of Care initiative aims to provide intensive support, on call, to homeless individuals, access to at least 100 new homes per year via agreements with community housing providers, financial support for the client in the early periods of tenancy, and financial support for the community housing provider to de-risk tenancies in the early stages. The aim is to secure long-term home occupancy both by stabilising arrangements for people at risk of losing their homes and reducing the “recidivism” of those who are helped out of homelessness. It is hoped that Foundation may assist Sacred Heart Mission to leverage the benefits that this model offers in terms of helping to prevent chronic homelessness, so that the CoC model will be rolled out more widely by government and other related entities.