Category Archives: Houses

Hamer, Leases

Council and the Hamer lease.

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On Monday evening Warren and I attended the Boroondara Council meeting where the issue of the future of the Hamer Court lease was dealt with. Councilors unanimously voted in favor of accepting Council officers recommendation that they be allowed to finalize the lease with the Dept. It was all very straightforward – but still very gratifying to see all the hands be raised!

If we are not quite ‘done and dusted’ we are most certainly well on the way! When all signed, sealed and delivered the new lease will take us from 1/7/2015 thru 30/6/2020.

BTW – if anyone wants to see a meeting run with chilling efficiency I suggest you go to a Council meeting. They are brutal affairs!!

Houses

Hamer lease progression

I received the following email from Katherine Wright from City of Boroondara this morning. All appears to be progressing nicely in terms of the likelihood of a new leases being signed between Council/Dept/SCH for Hamer.

Dear Matt

As discussed, we will be presenting a report to Council on Monday 23 February 2015 seeking approval for Council to enter into a five-year lease with DHS for Hamer Court from 1 July 2015, following the expiry of the current lease.

Regards,

Katherine

Katherine Wright Acting Coordinator Social Planning

 

 

 

Houses

A lack of porn What to do!!

City of Boroondara Health Officer visited Romana and Hamer this morning for the regular health inspections. Both houses passed comprehensively enough (nothing unusual there) However, the female inspector did comment that our houses were the first rooming houses she had ever visited where there was NO PORN ADORNING THE RESIDENTS WALLS!!!

Amazing. Just amazing.

General, Hamer

Craig

Servants management, Hamer resos and Elder Keith from Canterbury Baps said goodbye to Hamer reso Craig today at a very fitting and dignified chapel service in Preston.

There was not one person present who was not connected to Servants.

A couple of Hamer resos spoke super well and we got to see again how the community at Hamer, whilst different to Carrical and Romana in many ways, is just that – a community that cares for its own and understands the importance of family.

General, Hamer

CBC

I spoke at Canterbury Baptist Church this morning. It was a terrific opportunity to continue to solidify the already strong Servants/CBC relationship.

Interestingly CBC see their once a month meal involvement at Hamer as a KEY element of their outreach.

Many good things came out of our 2 years in Canterbury – arguably none better than the relationship with this very faithful group of people.

General, Hamer

Craig Packard

Hamer Court reso Craig Packard passed away on-site on Tuesday. Carly discovered his body. Craig was a friendly, genial chap – and also a chronic drinker, smoker and pill-popper. Massively overweight he was a ticking time-bomb. We had housed Craig since November 2012.

Carrical, Houses

All change!

With the Hislops now back from overseas they are preparing to move into Carrical. As of time of writing this post the painting of the Manager’s flat at Carrical, a job long overdue, is nearing completion. Once this has been completed and the carpets have been steam-cleaned the Hislops will move into the flat and begin their Carrical adventure. With the painting in full flow Amanda has been ‘camping’ at Carrical the last few nights.

Houses

Housing stats

It’s the 30th June – so this must be a good day to look at some of our housing stats for the financial year:

Carrical had 22 empty room nights for the year; Hamer had just 2 and Romana, from when it was first filled on 3rd June, had 0.

Carrical welcomed in 7 brand new resos during the year; Hamer 3 and Romana 24.

There were more exits by death than evictions this year – one death each at Carrical and Hamer and one eviction, drug use, at Carrical.

4 residents transferred facilities during the year.

2 former residents returned ‘home’ having realized the grass was much less green on the other side.

It took us from 8th May until 3rd June to fill Romana with the initial 24 resos.

I think these are a set of numbers we should be pretty proud of.

 

Carrical, Hamer

Carrical and Hamer

In all the excitement re opening Romana I can assure you that Carrical and Hamer have not been forgotten! We had the disappointment last week of seeing a very sound Hamer reso unexpectedly leaving us to return to Adelaide – every cloud has a sliver lining and on this occasion the created vacancy was filled by a young man who for some inexplicable reason had been living at Ivy Grange for many months and had been badly assaulted 24 hours before I met him. Hamer management is working well and, overall, the house seems pretty settled.

Carrical has not seen any reso movement since late February. The house is peaceful. One of the resos is currently in an aged -care psych ward (should be home within a week or two) and one of the resos is at home and seriously struggling with psych issues but being carefully monitored by the Clarendon Clinic. All in all it is a very peaceful environment with several long-term resos saying it is the best it has ever been.

Romana

Romana

Romana currently has 17 residents. The 18th moves in on Wednesday and the 19th on Thursday. The Halls tell me that the mix of resos is terrific and that the house has got off to a splendid start. I am in no hurry to fill all 24 positions – I would much rather take plenty of time and be as sure as possible that our initial intake is as good as it can possibly be. We are having our first House Meeting with resos this Thursday evening. There are some wonderful stories coming out of Romana already. The relationship with the Slovenians is terrific. We have made our first monthly payment to them. A member of Camberwell Rotary brought around a wonderful box of ‘welcome’ flowers to the house today. Exciting times at Romana.

There are some pretty wonderful photos of the Romana Opening on both the Servants site and Facebook page. Can I please encourage to ‘like’ the Servants FB page if you have not as yet managed to do so?

Romana

Opening

The Romana Opening was wonderful. When I think back to some of the great Servants occasions – Anthology launch, Not For Business Breakfast, theatre Opening Nights etc – the opening on Saturday absolutely stacks up alongside these events. The event showed us once again just how well networked we have become in recent years – there were so many people from so many varied networks in attendance. And for those reading this who were not there on the day – just how good a chap is FR Ciril?!?! Everyone was thrilled to see the house looking so terrific, and the only slightly negative feedback I received (which I quietly took as a compliment anyway!) was the chap from The Good Guys telling me not to be so angry!!!! Thank you President Warren and committee for your involvement on the day. It was a day I believe we should all feel rightfully proud of.

General, Houses

No Pulse!

I have not Pulsed for over a week now. Apologies.

Romana is currently two thirds full – 16 of 24. It is going well, really well. There are some wonderful stories for the telling coming out of Romana.

The official Opening for Romana occurs Saturday 17th with a 12.30pm kick-off.

Hamer had a rare vacancy this week – but was filled in a timely fashion to ensure our record of just 2 empty room nights for the fin year to date stays in tact …………….. not that we’re obsessive about this of course!

 

General, Romana

Bittersweet Thursday

Today was a day of extremes for me personally.

Having arisen at 4.30am and settled in to watch the Manchester City v Aston Villa game an email arrived from Harvard informing me that they were not offering me a place on the course I was expecting to attend in July. This has been very difficult news to digest. (pleased to report that City trounced Villa 4-0)

At 1.00pm this arvo we opened the doors of Romana to our first 3 new resos! This was such a good moment – one which I trust all involved with Servants will feel suitably proud of. We welcomed Ben, Natalie and Jaimie into the house. By next Wednesday we will be 2/3 full. Progress Leader took some pics of me, Fr Ciril, Rotarians and Ben later in the afternoon at Romana.

Romana

Romana

We have just completed a huge week of progress at Romana. The change in the house in the past week has been nothing short of dramatic.

We are now moving quickly towards taking our first resident in on Thursday 8th May.

Houses, Romana

Opening

Romana is starting to look just wonderful now. We are within the budget – just. Today I moved the opening day for residents back a few days from Wednesday 30th to Monday 5th May; this will give all involved the opportunity to ensure the house is looking spot on for the first resos in.

Advocacy, Carrical, General, Romana

Melbourne High day

Today 5 pretty switched on students from the Melbourne High Philanthropy Club spent several hours at Romana involved in a few volunteering tasks. It was a good day, some manual work was achieved, but, more importantly, we now have several young men who have had their eyes opened to the world of Servants and what we do and why we do it. During the final part of the day I took the guys to Carrical to meet a few residents – this proved to be a positive, thought-provoking exercise for the students. I have little doubt that some good things will happen for Servants as a result of today’s investment.

General, Romana

Melbourne High

A group of boys from Melbourne High are visiting Romana on Easter Sunday for a volunteer day. This is our first foray into the world of Melbourne High – hopefully many good things will eventuate from it.

Finances, Houses, Romana

The week in Romana

The week just ending has been the busiest week at Romana to date. All week the house has been full of builders, tilers, painters, Rotarians, folks coming for interviews etc. It has been a veritable hive of activity. The one possible delay at this stage is the delivery of white goods to complete the Managers and Residents Kitchens. I am still hopeful of moving the first reso in on Wednesday 30th April – but this might now be delayed by a few days. The progress is immense – day by day we are just seeing the house taking shape between our eyes – it is an exhilarating process. The generosity that so many people are showing Servants is very touching; we have been given truly great deals by several tradies – all of which helps to keep the costs down and helps us to come in under budget.