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Assembled in a makeshift commercial kitchen on a side street in Melbourne’s north, 15 volunteers with the Muslim Women’s Council of Victoria take on their own “mystery box” every Friday.
They rustle through donations of food from local charities and businesses: spare vegetables, rice, spice packets, sometimes chicken or beef.
Afshan Mantoo (centre) and her group of volunteers preparing food at their kitchen in Coburg.
Credit:Penny Stephens
Their assignment? Come up with a meal to serve the vulnerable Victorians who visit for Friday lunch in Coburg. Demand has peaked and troughed since mum-of-four Afshan Mantoo, the council’s president, started the initiative at the start of the coronavirus pandemic last March.
Only 10 per cent of hotel homeless in permanent homes amid property shortage
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Just one in 10 homeless Victorians put up in hotels during the pandemic have been relocated to permanent homes, with Housing Minister Richard Wynne saying finding the right properties was a challenge, particularly in regional areas.
Homeless people disappeared from the streets within days in March last year after the state government paid to house them in hotels due to concerns of a COVID-19 outbreak among vulnerable rough sleepers unable to socially isolate.
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It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but Emma Wild loves going to work every day.
She works in emergency relief for Uniting Care, handing out food to some of Victoria’s most vulnerable: homeless people, the elderly, domestic violence victims.
Emma Wild is one of 12,000 Victorians who became unemployed then was connected with a job via Working for Victoria. The government is ending the funding on June 30.
Credit:Jason South
“I had an epic mid-life crisis where I decided the fashion industry wasn’t for me and my calling was working with people,” says the 44-year-old Melbourne woman.
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Homelessness services say frontline staff will be axed, more people will sleep rough and more women fleeing family violence will be forced to live out of their cars if they lose more than $20 million a year in federal funding from July.
The Victorian government has written to the stateâs homelessness organisations, warning the federal budget did not renew part of their funding beyond June 30.
Launch Housing CEO Bevan Warner is facing a loss of $2.47 million in funding next financial year.
Credit:Scott McNaughton
âA loss of Commonwealth ⦠funding would mean a funding reduction to Victoria of $100 million over four years ($23.2 million in 2021-22),â the letter from state government agency Homes Victoria says.
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Homelessness services say frontline staff will be axed, more people will sleep rough and more women fleeing family violence will be forced to live out of their cars if they lose more than $20 million a year in federal funding from July.
The Victorian government has written to the stateâs homelessness organisations, warning the federal budget did not renew part of their funding beyond June 30.
Launch Housing CEO Bevan Warner is facing a loss of $2.47 million in funding next financial year.
Credit:Scott McNaughton
âA loss of Commonwealth ⦠funding would mean a funding reduction to Victoria of $100 million over four years ($23.2 million in 2021-22),â the letter from state government agency Homes Victoria says.