JOY'S HOUSE PROJECT, SONSHINE SANCTUARY.

The main business of the Sonshine Sanctuary Association is to provide crisis accommodation for women and children made homeless by domestic / family violence. The add-on Joy's House Project provides a service to our clients for when they have finished in Refuge.

Women and children may stay for up to 12 weeks at the Sonshine Sanctuary high-security Refuge, during which time they are encouraged to work on their exit plans. Three things we want to help the client avoid are going straight back to homelessness, moving into an inappropriate relationship for the sake of affordable housing, or entering into an unsustainable housing arrangement - high rent, poor location, etc.

The aim of the Joy's House Project is to improve the circumstances of women and children otherwise homeless or at risk of homelessness, by assisting entry into safe, secure and sustainable housing. The goals of the project are:

To provide stable and safe housing where barriers exist to other alternatives
Permanency with support resulting in sustained tenancies
Personal empowerment and independence
Access to employment, education and training
Improve health and mental health and tenants ability to manage their health
Reduce harm due to substance abuse
Provide links and referrals to community-based services wherever possible
Increase social supports, help connect to family and friends, and recover valued life roles
Help people be good neighbours and participate/belong in the community

Of those clients exiting our Refuge to settle in the area, Sonshine Sanctuary case management activities assists with finding housing but sometimes there is an extreme barrier, for example perhaps the lady is on the Real Estate Blacklist [TICA] or perhaps she has no rental history in her own right. For these women and children the Sonshine Sanctuary may rent a local property at market-value, and sub-lease under our Joy's House Project to the client at market-value plus $5 for paperwork charges. This arrangement enables a family to wait out the TICA listing, or establish a rental history. After a period of time perhaps two or three years, the lady may chose to take over the lease in her own name, this creating an even more valuable rental history which will serve her for her entire future.

We commenced the Joy's House Project in 2004, when exit housing from Refuge initially became a very real problem caused by rising rents on the Sunshine Coast [population growth = shortage of affordable housing] and the bite of the Real Estates Black List [TICA]. Initial seed funding was supplied by Zonta Maroochy, and this has been followed by funds donated from:

Austar [Foxtel]
Radio Sea-FM
Energex Community Hero Award
Private individuals
Avon Beauty 'Hello Tomorrow' campaign
Zonta Noosa
Lady Bowen Trust [Brisbane]
Zonta Caloundra

Ladies entering our Joy's House Project mostly do not have furniture and household appliances to set themselves up in a tenancy, and particularly in the early days of their lease they may need emotional and financial support to sustain their lease and/or bond repayments to the Residential Tenancy Authority. The Joy's House Project provides a fund to offer such establishment assistance. Additionally, we like to take care that the children are not disadvantaged during this period, so we often pay for parenting courses, day-care, school fees and excursions etc until good foundations are laid. Our experience has been that we need the sum of approximately $2000 per lease set aside in our Joy's House Fund for each new lease. At the end of 2009, Sonshine Sanctuary managed 10 leases under this scheme. There no administration or salary costs attributed specifically to the Joy's House Project, as they are included in the Refuge running costs and the case management is included in the normal daily Refuge workload.

Donations made specifically to the Joy's House Project will be allocated expressly to that Fund for the benefit of women and children made homeless by domestic and/or family violence.