About us

Haven; Home, Safe is Australia’s only integrated affordable rental housing and homelessness services provider. We are a for-purpose organisation.

We are a homelessness services agency that provides a range of housing solutions and wrap-around supports to help people find and keep a place they can call home.

As a for-purpose organisation, we are committed to bridging the housing divide and creating more inclusive, caring communities.

Our goal is to prevent homelessness in Victoria.

With over 40 years experience, we proudly work with a wide range of Government, public and private partners, collaboratively to help achieve our goal.

We operate across large parts of metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria, from the south eastern suburbs to Mildura, from Warrnambool to Wodonga and from the North eastern suburbs down through to Geelong. We have offices in Preston, Geelong, Bendigo and Mildura.

Our Purpose

In a world where homelessness and housing crisis exist, we connect people with housing options and integrated supports so that they can find and keep a place to call home.

Our values

Respect
Listen
Collaborate

We put people first, especially our clients.

Innovation
Challenge
Learning

We do things differently to get the best results.

Accountability
Responsibility
Integrity

We do what we say and always make a difference.

Our strategic goals and priorities

A range of sustainable housing outcomes for people who are homeless or in housing crisis.

Advocacy and support for our diverse clientele with a particular focus on developing
life skills and individual capacity

Relationships with government, community and commercial partners and other key
stakeholders to achieve
our Purpose.

Resources, infrastructure and financial capacity of the organisation to achieve our Purpose.

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion

Diversity and inclusion is central to how we operate and who we are, both inside and out. We are committed to building an inclusive workforce that welcomes, respects and values the diverse people we employ and communities we serve. We are on a journey and strive to incorporate these values into everything we do.

To make genuine change, we are implementing community-led solutions for the following people and communities:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
LGBTIQ+ Communities
Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities
Older people
People living with a disability
Women (Gender equity)

Our History

Follow our journey of success and support.

1978

BUEAC begins

Bendigo Urban Emergency Accommodation Resource Centre (BUEAC) is officially incorporated and becomes the first emergency housing program in Victoria funded by the state government.

1993

A most challenging year

The organisation was in a parlous state. The Ministry of Housing had written to the committee advising them that their funding was to be cancelled if certain changes were not made. The committee hires Ken Marchingo as housing officer to start on 17 January 1994. Funding was provided in six-monthly increments until the department was satisfied with the financial state of the organisation.

1994

Organisation re-named as Bendigo Emergency Housing

Organisation changed its name to Bendigo Emergency Housing from BUEARC. It was chosen because it said what we did and where we did it. It had an implicit challenge in the name.

1995

Winning Supported Accommodation Assistance Program tender

The organisation won the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) tender from a large national provider and began developing an integrated housing and homelessness service model.

1996

Social enterprise repay debts

Most of the former BUEARC’s debts were repaid via a variety of social enterprise activities over the two prior years.

1997

LMHS wins Regional Housing Assistance program

LMHS auspiced the Loddon Campaspe Regional Housing Program and won the regional housing assistance program, and set up both as their own entities. The LCRHC became, what is now known as Housing Justice, a community legal service.