Jewish House joins landmark urgent housing project

In the past year, Australian not-for-profit Jewish House housed over 1400 men, women and children experiencing homelessness, with 189 beds across 8 locations. Now, in a major expansion of its services, it’s providing an additional 50 rooms to Sydney’s new Inner West Project. The new initiative is a collaborative project with Women’s Community Shelters (WCS) and the New South Wales government, to tackle the state’s housing and domestic violence crisis.

The largest ‘meanwhile use’ initiative in the southern hemisphere, the Inner West Project turns underutilised and vacant buildings into urgent housing, while long-term development plans progress. Transforming an old hospital building into safe, modern accommodation, Jewish House has created 50 rooms for men experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Meanwhile, in a separate building onsite, WCS is offering housing solutions for approximately 50 women, children and transgender people. 

The project came together extremely quickly, with Jewish House’s rooms developed within 4 months in order to open by the end of October. With WCS taking care of housing for women and children, Jewish House’s CEO, Rabbi Mendel Kastel OAM, saw an opportunity to support vulnerable men. 

“We've found over the last number of years that there’s been a very strong focus on women escaping domestic violence, and therefore there are a lot of services that are being put in place,” Kastel told The Jewish Independent. 

“But there are also a lot of men that are experiencing mental health, drugs and alcohol, domestic violence, illness, misfortune, that end up homeless, and what we're finding is that there’s a greater shortage at the moment for men’s beds.”