A Place to Call Home

by Hobart Magazine

South Hobart’s Richard and Jan Gould have privately purchased a former student accommodation that can house up to 10, and are turning it into low-rent housing for older women at risk of homelessness. It’s hoped to open in October.

What is the Blue Sky House and why did you want to start it? It was previously a student accommodation for Jane Franklin Hall. They’ve had it for about 40 years. The brilliant part about it is it’s been set up to have multiple occupancy. It’s a very rare creature to find one like that. What drew us to to the whole thing was that we had a number of women in their forties and fifties staying at our place in South Hobart, who we found through the local community or Good Karma Networks. They were desperate to find somewhere to stay until they could get themselves settled into more permanent accommodation. And then we saw this house. We hadn’t set out a month ago to buy a piece of property, that’s for sure! We’re quite surprised that we’ve done it, but we believe the need is so great. We’re not trying to save the world, but we thought, if we’re going to give some people a chance to live a life under safety and security and have a reasonable and decent place to live, let’s go for it.

Tell us about your open day coming up. On 7 September we want the community to come through and get an idea of what we’re trying to do. There’s a few little fears in the community that we’d like to allay, like thinking we’re going to house 30 or 40 people. This is going to be a respectful space for these women, a safe space. As my wife likes to say, a sisterhood. I think once they understand what we’re doing, they will switch from concern to support.

How can the community help out? We’re going to be doing some gardening days in the near future. Right now we are just setting things down to make them safe.

Parting words? It’s getting worse, and a person who’s on NDIS or financial support literally can’t find a place to live now. The average price for a one bedroom unit here in Hobart is now $450 to $650 a week. Somebody on a limited income just cannot afford that. We’re not a charity. We’re private people. We are going to make these rooms available at a low income, low accommodation price, lower than the market. It’s just something we believe in and hopefully we’ll have the community support with it. At the end of the day, we love this community here and look forward to making this a reality.

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Hobart Happenings

by Steph Williams

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