Yarra Valley Community Housing
“Charity Bank Australia asked about the people we house before they asked about the buildings. No other lender started the conversation there.”
Supported housing charity
Healesville, Victoria
Rents in the Yarra Valley climbed faster than the incomes of the people Yarra Valley Community Housing supports. Every year the charity watched tenants leave the valley for a room in a city they did not know, away from the family, the work and the services that had kept them steady. The waiting list grew, and the head lease properties the charity relied on kept being sold out from under it.
The charity had run supported housing on short leases for eleven years and had the tenancy record to prove it worked. What it did not have was ownership. Without it, a landlord's decision could undo a year of somebody's recovery, and the charity could not plan past the end of a lease.
A loan from Charity Bank Australia let the charity buy twelve homes across Healesville and the surrounding townships and bring them up to standard: rewiring, insulation, accessible bathrooms in four of them, and a small office where support workers can meet tenants without an appointment. The homes are a mix of two and three bedrooms, chosen street by street so tenants stay near transport and schools.
Twelve households moved in over the following eighteen months, most of them coming straight from crisis accommodation or a car. Tenancies that once ran a few months now run for years; eight of the first twelve tenants are still in the same home, three have moved on into private rentals, and the charity's support team spends its time on employment and health rather than on emergency relocations. Ownership also gave the charity a base to plan from — it now has a rolling programme to bring one more home into the portfolio each year.
The charity chose Charity Bank Australia because the first meeting was about tenants rather than valuations. The lending team understood a housing charity's income — a mix of rent, grants and philanthropy — and read the tenancy record as evidence rather than as an unusual risk. Decisions came from people the charity could reach directly, and the same manager who assessed the application still visits the homes.
“Charity Bank Australia asked about the people we house before they asked about the buildings. No other lender started the conversation there.”
Marika Enders, Chief Executive of Yarra Valley Community Housing
About Charity Bank Australia
Charity Bank Australia is the loans and savings bank owned by and committed to supporting the social sector. We use our savers’ money to lend to housing, education, social care, community and other social purpose organisations across Australia.
Nothing in this article constitutes an invitation to engage in investment activity nor is it advice or a recommendation and professional advice should be taken before any course of action is pursued.
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