A place to call home

CLIENT: Newtown Neighbourhood Centre
PUBLISHED: NNC website
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: 2015 Gratitude Report
CREATED: September 2015
AUTHOR: Fallon Dasey

NNC’s Boarding House team works hard to ensure vulnerable members of the community have living environments that are safe and provide dignity.

Dirty, cockroach-infested and leaky, the room that 60-year-old Vietnamese immigrant Vu was provided in an Inner West
boarding house was a disgrace. Already battling a serious lung condition, Vu was forced to contend with mouldy walls caused
by the trickling in of water contaminated with pigeon faeces.
His life changed dramatically when with help from NNC’s Boarding House Outreach Service, he was able to relocate to
a modern one-bedroom unit in a Uniting Care facility. “Life is much, much better now,” a beaming Vu says. “The neighbours
are nice, everything is alright here. I actually like it.”
NNC assists 300 people living in boarding houses through services run by a total of 15 staff and volunteers.
“We are proud to be the lead agency in Sydney working in the boarding house space” says Boarding House Services
Manager Paul Adabie. “We have four distinct boarding house funded services, including a social support service
for older residents, a case management service we run in collaboration with WAGEC and CRC, a research project with
Western Sydney University, and a boarding house operator engagement project.”

• The Boarding House Outreach Service is a case-work support program that provides support
  to people living in boarding houses or who are looking to access boarding house accommodation.
• The Boarders and Lodgers Program provides social support and assistance to residents of
  general boarding houses in the Marrickville LGA who are frail aged or living with a disability.
• The Community Linking Project provides individual support and group social activities to
  residents of assisted boarding houses and those living in disability-supported accommodation.