Addison Hotel opens for homeless youth
In what has to be an Australia first, Sydney’s Addison Hotel located in Kensington has opened its doors to homeless youth.
The hotel right now is vacant, waiting for a development plan to get approval.
So the building owner, TOGA, saw this as the opportunity to bring people off the street, providing them with crisis accommodation, a safe place to live and study while they get their lives together.
The company is offering 42 fully-furnished rooms, each with their own bathroom and kitchenette, all revenue free.
In the lobby, there is a “take what you need, pay what you can” supermarket run by OzHarvest. It will stock only rescued food.
And next to the hotel, there is a clothing rescue service, Thread Together, providing brand new clothing to those who can’t afford decent gear.
There is also a free laundry service from Orange Sky Laundry, the world's first mobile laundry service. It is visiting The Addison once a week offering its free services.
TOGA hopes other property owners around the city will follow suit.
"We had this empty building sitting here and we thought there has got to be something we can do with it that will create some good," managing director Alan Vidor told the ABC.
With 43 per cent of Australia's homeless population under 25 years old, the service is attracting lots of homeless youth.
Rebecca Mullins, chief executive of My Foundations Youth Housing, who are managing the accommodation said it can be managed.
"We don't share the view that it's a risk," Ms Mullins told the ABC.
So far, there have been 56 household groups, either singles or women with children, coming through The Addison.
They have been given 511 nights of accommodation since the hotel service for the homeless was opened at the end of January.
by Leon Gettler, April 5th 2017
