By Tanya Steele
Upper Yarra community have united for long term solutions to homelessness with an awareness event highlighting the growing need for the issue to be tackled at a community level.
Over 150 residents young and old attended the Cerini walk on Sunday 13 August to raise awareness for community members experiencing homelessness.
Vice President of the Warburton Advancement League, David Pratt said the Cerini walk was there to highlight the plight of people experiencing homelessness in the Upper Yarra area,
“It allows the community to voice their concerns for the lack of public housing without it being seen as a protest.,” he said.
“We ask the government to listen that there needs to be more public and social and affordable housing, in all areas, including the Upper Yarra.”
The community met at 11am and walked the rail trail from Millgrove CFA to the Cerini Centre in Warburton.
“It was an acknowledgement that something needs to change,” Mr Pratt said.
Mr Pratt said the community have really acknowledged the need for change and the mindset towards social housing is evolving as well.
“The mindset changes and affirms social housing is needed and says I’m okay if it’s next door,” he said.
“But even one person housed is what we classify as a success story, but we know that there are many, many 1000s of success stories that we need to see.”
The issue of homelessness can feel daunting to approach but Mr Pratt said in order to resolve the issues from it that they need organisations like Homes Victoria, to listen to communities and hear the different solutions that every community needs.
“Its long term housing, some it’s interim housing and some its crisis housing and there’s no one size fits all and what suits Warburton may not suit Yara Junction,” he said.
“Involving the community in these solutions is going to be critical if we’re going to deliver the 6000 plus homes that is necessary for the many, many years to come.”
The Cerini walk is dedicated to Father Charles Cerini, who began the original St Joseph’s Primary School in the Cerini Centre.
Father Cerini marched 35 students from Yarra Junction to Warburton in 19600 to protest the local school bus not taking children up to the school from the high school after it moved to Yarra Junction.
The current Cerini center project aims to provide twelve homes for families for periods of between one and five years.
“Surveys have told us, the critical need in our area is for interim housing for families who know through no fault of their own, may have to move out because houses are being sold and you can’t upstart kids jobs, all of them and you’re out of your community,” Mr Pratt said.
“The main focus is social and public housing that needs to be delivered for the people who live in those communities, for those communities, that’s where their support networks are,” he said.
Mayor Jim Child attended the event and said that he wholeheartedly supports the mission of the Cerini project.
“So many people nationwide sleep rough and we in the Yarra Ranges are not exempt from that,” he said.
“It’s very important to get the council involved at every level and support the issue long term.”
Once a registered housing provider comes on board to the cause then the project can advance further with applications into Homes Victoria.
Mr Pratt said that the community has spoken, and has said that we need to look after and provide social and public housing within our community.
“Getting another step closer is the key,”he said.
