New Adelaide apartment block for at-risk homeless and women escaping domestic violence

A brand new apartment block for women fleeing violence or homeless will rise from a city site next year.

Work on a New Generation Catherine House is expected to start next year.

Work on a brand new $32.6m Catherine House to give women fleeing domestic violence or homelessness a safe place to stay, is expected to start mid-next year.

State and federal governments have chipped in $22.3m to build the eight-storey Adelaide city apartment block for the service that currently helps about 60 women a night with crisis accommodation.

Catherine House has borrowed other funds for the project and has now launched its Build Her Up fundraising campaign after committing to raise another $2.5m so work can start on the “New Generation Catherine House”.

Catherine House director Julie Duncan said the new 24/7 operation would provide women with vital crisis accommodation and support, lifting the number of places the service can offer from 60 “to more than 76 safe places for women experiencing homelessness each night’.

The New Generation Catherine House will incorporate a Women’s Centre and self-contained units that provide women with individual rather than shared kitchens, bathrooms and laundries for the first time.

The organisation already raises about $1.5m through fundraising and philanthropy each year to run the existing Catherine House on top of $500,000 in state government operation funding it receives annually over four years.

Plans for the new Catherine House building in the city.

Ms Duncan hoped the 52 self-contained apartments would be safely housing women by Christmas in 2026 and “we know we can always rely on the SA community for their support” in raising the remaining funds.

One client Zoe (not her real name) welcomed the project.

She told of Catherine House helping her feel “safe for the first time in years after she escaped a violent relationship and was homeless.

“The new service means Catherine House can continue to do the amazing job they (staff) are doing now but they will be able to help more women like me who need support,” she said.

“Being able to have your own living space when putting your life back together will be life changing.”

The new site also would allow children to also stay onsite with their mothers for the first time, service philanthropy and engagement manager Jaylee Cooper saying Catherine House was seeing its highest demand in her seven years working with the organisation.

“Sixty per cent of women who come here is a result of domestic and family violence,” she said.

“(However, there are many homeless in the community) most women are sleeping in cars, couch surfing in our community, staying with friends and families, a lot of women are in unsafe relationships and they are not able to leave.”

Catherine House director Julie Duncan

Plans for the new Catherine House building in the city.

Housing Minister Nick Champion described the new building as a “critical housing project in the city to support vulnerable women and their children”.

While Federal Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said investment in the project through the national Safe Places Inclusion Round was helping victim-survivors.

“We know that if a woman has a safe place to go and take her children, she is more likely to take the steps to leave a violent relationship,” she said.

“No one escaping violence should have to choose between their safety and somewhere to live.”

For Zoe, the service is critical for women in South Australia.

“My future is looking so good. Catherine House helped me to get a job that I love, I have my own apartment which they helped with, and I’m able to spend time and plan trips for myself and my children,” she said.

“I honestly thought that going to Catherine House would be the worst time in my life, but it turned out to be one of the best.”

The fundraiser: https://build-her-up.raiselysite.com/

Originally published as New Adelaide apartment block for at-risk homeless and women escaping domestic violence