Providing housing for vulnerable residents

The architecture firm Schored Projects has designed a series of modular homes for women and children escaping domestic violence. The project, Homes for Help, is designed to fit together in multiple configurations. Each home is designed with three large rooms, outdoor play spaces and bathrooms suited for families with young children. The project aims to enable dignity, independence, and comfort for those who will eventually live in them, considering accessibility and the silver Liveable Housing standards which incorporated wider doorways and corridor widths.

When it comes to social housing, the big design objective is to design homes that aren’t obviously social housing – this aim helps minimise stigma towards vulnerable residents. The modular homes programs has considered passive design principles such as orientation to provide passive shading and cross ventilation to minimise running costs for tenants.

Homes to Help is a collaboration between Platinum Institute Australia (PIA), a registered training organisation providing disadvantaged students with applicable training in the construction industry, and non-profit community housing provider Women’s Property Initiatives (WPI).

According to the Homes for Help project partner, Steve Michelson, said 10 prototypes will be rolled out in 2023 in Ballarat to provide the much-needed affordable housing which has a higher than average rate of family violence.

 According to a recent report by Homelessness Australia, family violence is now the biggest cause of demand for specialist homelessness services, with overall demand for services increasing at twice the rate of population growth.

Across Australia, approximately 45,000 women did  not have a safe and secure home last Christmas. These safe, secure, modern and modular homes are the type of social housing that women and their families can be proud of and feel comfortable in for vulnerable Victorians.

The organisation plans to work with the Victorian government to adjust the terms of the Big Housing Build to create a funding stream that would allow the initiative to expand across Victoria and benefit disenfranchised young people as well as families that have experienced family violence.