Thursday 12 February 2009

Thursdays in Black: Wellington Women's Boarding House

The Wellington Women's Boarding House is in Mt Victoria, and has been largely full since it first opened in 1992.
The Wellington Women's Boarding House provides safe, pleasant accommodation for women on low incomes. With a live in manager, the big old house in Mt Victoria offers comfort, companionship, protection and independence at the same time.

This is the only house of its kind in the country. It offers a sanctuary where women can "get their life back together". The circumstances that bring women to the house are varied, but in all cases, the women need a safe, supportive environment, at an affordable cost - and that is what the house aims to provide.

Residents have included women aged from their teens to their eighties, and some have returned for a second time when they need to. The House also has emergency accommodation available for women without money and with no other place to go.

The rents charged are obviously very low, which means the House needs to find income from elsewhere to keep the building going. You can find out more about their funding needs, and how to help, here. And if you are keen to give time rather than money they are also looking for volunteers, via their webpage.

3 comments:

Anna said...

Establishments like these are so important. I'm thinking particularly of the bad old days of the nineties when they ended up filling in for lack of mental health residential services and stuff like that. Not that substituting a boarding house for residential care is a good thing - but it's a whole lot better than being homeless.

Anonymous said...

BBC Blog.

DPF:TLDR said...

And your point would be, Anonymous?