Last week I spoke about Homelessness and the alarming number of people being on the streets.
The topic is obviously becoming a concern as it is being discussed in many circles.
Today I noticed on the News an article called ‘Parishes open hearts and homes’.
It is a good news story as they mentioned that one in five parishes in the Archdiocese of Melbourne is providing housing at low cost in their local community.
This is really living out the Gospel message to assist the poor, disadvantaged and marginalised.
The report was based on a survey carried out by Catholic Social Services Victoria.
They found 42 parishes and four religious orders are providing housing at low cost for approximately 404 people in 201 dwellings.
Among those being helped by the affordable housing are 173 elderly people, 87 refugees and asylum seekers, 34 people living with mental illness, eight aboriginal people, eight people in emergency accommodation and 94 others.
The Social Housing Working group is working to engage parishes and religious orders with Catholic social housing providers and support services in order to develop proposals that can be funded to build social housing that is well managed and supported.
This is great to hear, now we need to raise it from one in five parishes to ? in five parishes.
Fr Michael Morley
Parish Priest
Sacred Heart Parish
Tatura
