As part of the Community Plus+ network, West End Community House supports the well-being of the most marginalised people in our community.
The House was established in 1983 and is based in Norfolk Street in West End. It also operates the Kurilpa Kiosk at People’s Park on Boundary Street. The team offers information and referral services, art and craft activities like the Art Gang, drop-in services, computer and printing assistance, and the Thursday community breakfasts. It also supports the wonderful music group, the Whoopee-Do Crew.
Housing Needs
Community Development Worker at WECH, Kirsten Marlow says a lot of the need she sees at West End Community House is related to the February floods in Brisbane and the associated housing crisis.
“The crux is that rents have gone up, so everything that residents are now putting into rent, they can’t put into purchasing food. So, its food insecurity that we’re seeing.”
Kirsten, who also works at the Community Plus+ Annerley service, also sees growing housing needs for older women.
“That is the fastest growing demographic to have recently fallen into homelessness. They are mostly invisible, because they have friends or family and can couch surf. Also, they don’t turn up to a lot of the accommodation services because they often feel unsafe in those places.”
COVID and the Floods also increased the needs of overseas students.
“A lot more international students have been really affected. They need a lot of help and food is the easiest and most flexible bill, so they can eat less this week, maybe eat more next week, and they can find food for free.”
WECH also assists in linking people to housing and liaises with other services like Micah Projects on behalf of people needing assistance.
“The demand is insane. Because of the floods there are still people who are living in social housing. Social housing has dried up, and boarding houses are not safe for everyone. Often, if older women have cars, they’ll sleep in their car, because that is safer than going to a boarding house.”
Kirsten said there are actually a lot of empty dwellings in the community, around 10 per cent across all of Brisbane and 20 per cent in South Brisbane.
“Just recently the rental laws have changed so people can now rent out a granny flat.”
But, Kirsten said services need to better understand where these places might be.
“The Queensland Government also has a scheme (Help to Home) where if you have an investment property. They will lease the property to registered community housing providers for up to three years, giving you the three year’s rent up front and return the House to you in this state it was received”.
Kirsten said the problem is that owners can often make much more on the short-stay market, such as Airbnb.
Food Services
Kirsten says WECH is not funded as a food service and does not have a budget for food.
“We rely on donations. On Wednesdays, we have the Oz Harvest markets. On Thursdays, we do a community breakfast. Councillor Jonathan Sriranganathan gives us $100 each week for the Thursday breakfasts. In addition, a local man uses the money he gets from picking up cans to buy ingredients and cooks soup for us every Friday. We also have frozen meals provided by Fair Share and some provided by a local woman who cooks them herself.”
WECH has a pantry and a fridge in the House’s driveway in Norfolk Street; people can leave food donations there.
“Some people are specifically just coming through for food”, Kirsten said.
Pantry items are listed in the image below:
Christmas
WECH plans a Christmas breakfast on 22 December to celebrate Christmas, and Jem Sparkles of the Whoopee-Do Crew will launch a new album on 16th Dec.
WECH is seeking donations for hampers this Christmas. They would welcome cash donations via their website to stock the pantry and purchase items for the hampers.
Items needed for Hampers are:
- Long Life Custard
- Christmas Bonbons
- Christmas Cake
- Christmas Biscuits
- Hot Chocolate Sachets
- Crackers
- Tea/Coffee
- Olives
- Sun Dried Tomatoes
- Long Life Milk
- Sugar
- Hygiene Products (pads, deodorant, toothpaste/brushes)
- Canned Meat/Fish
- Chocolate
Support needed over Christmas Closure.
While often cash donations are the most helpful, that will not be the case over the Christmas shutdown period, when there will be no staff to spend the money.
WECH will be closed for two weeks over Christmas, 24 Dec- 8 Jan. Many other community and government agencies close over the Christmas break, and this can leave vulnerable people with limited support during that time.
“So, if people could make meals, they can pop them in the fridge. That would be really helpful. There is often a lot of goodwill before Christmas, but we still need support to continue after Christmas.”
Donate
Make a tax deductable donation to Community Plus+ here.
https://communityplus.org.au/support-us/#Donate
Contact
- 4 Norfolk Road, South Brisbane, QLD 4104
- Phone: 3217 2333
Opening Hours
Open House: Monday to Friday 9am – 11am
Phone Service: Monday to Friday 9am – 1.00pm
All images supplied
Related Stories
https://westender.com.au/west-end-community-house-is-our-house/
https://westender.com.au/west-end-community-house-looking-after-our-mob/