A Tasmanian hotel business has donated approximately $500,000 worth of furniture to assist the fit out of a new transitional housing facility for women at risk of homelessness in Hobart. Source: ABC News.
Amelie House, in Hobart, is operated jointly by the St Vincent de Paul Society and Hobart City Mission, and will provide accommodation for up to 43 women facing, or at risk of, homelessness – a demographic bearing a significant brunt of Tasmania’s housing crisis.
Housed in Hobart’s city centre, on Warwick Street, the site has been vacant since men’s transitional and crisis accommodation, Bethlehem House, relocated to Harrington Street in November 2023.
Now, Somerset on the Pier’s furniture donation has helped get Amelie House ready for its new life – at a significantly lower cost.
Ascott Limited Australia is the company that owns Somerset on the Pier.
General manager of brand and environmental, social and governance, Anthea Dimitrakopoulos, said it was a “simple discussion” that led to the furniture donation — which included more than 2000 items, from beds and TVs to crockery and white goods.
“We turned around and said, ‘guess what, we’re closing down our amazing property … for a big [refurbishment] and we have a whole bunch of beds and furniture that we can repurpose,” Ms Dimitrakopoulos said.
“And rather than that going to landfill, why can’t we repurpose really good quality furniture so that Vinnies can utilise that?’
“From that conversation, everybody mobilised.”
Vinnies Tasmania state president Corey McGrath said the significance of the donation couldn’t be undervalued, with it accounting for a majority of the furniture in Amelie House.
“Without that furniture, essentially … we just have sleeping bags on the floor,” he said.
“To be able to put some furniture in gives those women some independence and dignity, rather than just [going] ‘here’s somewhere to sleep’.”
With plans to further develop the site in the long term, Mr McGrath said offering traditional housing in the interim played a key role in stopping the cycle of homelessness.
But he acknowledged these 43 beds were only “a drop in the ocean” compared with the demand across the state.
FULL STORY
Hotel donates furniture for transitional housing for women in Hobart (By Meg Whitfield, ABC News)
