Tuesday, 2 August 2022

 Ms WATT (Northern Metropolitan) (12:33): This week is Homelessness Week, and yesterday to mark the occasion I visited St Mary’s House of Welcome alongside Lauren O’Dwyer, Labor’s candidate for Richmond. St Mary’s House of Welcome is a not-for-profit open-access centre which has been supporting vulnerable Victorians for 62 years. They provide basic essential services and program support to vulnerable community members who are extremely isolated and socially marginalised. Many of those who come to St Mary’s House of Welcome for help experience a number of issues that can include sleeping rough, addiction, poverty, childhood trauma, mental illness, institutionalisation and all sorts of things which add up to chronic social and health problems. I joined Lauren to assist in running their breakfast service, and I met with John and Adrian to hear their story and learn more about how they benefited from St Mary’s services. I would like to extend my thanks to CEO Robina Bradley and board member Loretta Crowe for inviting me to the centre and showing me about. I appreciate so much you sharing your vision with me about the future for St Mary’s, and can I say I wish you well for the next 62 years.