Sunny Street Maroochydore in liquidation

An essential service for vulnerable Sunshine Coast residents has closed its doors after the company behind it entered liquidation having struck significant funding issues.

Dr. Nova Evans and Sonia Goodwin are the team from Sunny Street, providing health care to homeless and vulnerable people.

The parent company behind a Maroochydore medical centre dedicated to helping vulnerable people in the community has folded citing issues with funding needed in order to keep the essential service open.

Sunny Street Maroochydore Pty Ltd – which entered voluntary liquidation on June 1 – first opened its doors to patients in 2018 and was awarded a Sunshine Coast Business Award in 2022.

Sunny Street Medical Centre in Maroochydore provided bulk billed medical services to those in the region experiencing homelessness and other vulnerabilities, without needing a Medicare card.

The medical centre was managed by two directors, Australian of the Year nominee Dr Nova Evans and nurse manager Sonia Martin.

Co-director Sonia Martin said the closure of Sunny Street was due to the service being unable to secure funding, however she was still adamant she would continue to find ways to help those vulnerable in the community.

Sunny Street Co-Founder Sonia Martin said the centre did not receive enough funding.

“While this closure marks the end of an era for Sunny Street, I am committed to ensuring the continuity of care for our most vulnerable people,” Ms Martin said.

“I am currently taking a break to recharge and plan how I can best undertake my mission of meeting the ongoing needs of our community alongside local stakeholders.

“It is my unwavering dedication to continue serving those who rely on equitable, accessible healthcare the most.”

Nurse Sonia Martin and Dr Nova Evans, founders of Sunny Street, had previously sought crowd-funding to expand their homeless medical service. Picture: Patrick Woods

Appointed liquidator Paul Nogueira of Worrells said the Sunny Street Maroochydore business would eventually be wound up.

“The reason I have been appointed is that Sunny Street were unable to secure any funding to continue trading in the future and as a result the directors have made the decision to close it down,” Mr Nogueira said.

“At some stage the company will be wound up so and it appears all the creditors will be paid in due course.”

Mr Nogueira said Sunny Street provided an important service that is not offered at many other medical centres across the Sunshine Coast.

“It is a shame they have had to close down, unfortunately, there are not too many other organisations on the Sunshine Coast that provide similar services, but they just didn’t have the funding so the directors have made the right decision at the end of the day,” he said.

Mr Nogueira said at this stage it was unknown how much money was owed to creditors, but his investigations were continuing.