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.

1997

Loddon Mallee Housing Services Limited is created

The CEO changed BEH’s status from an incorporated association to a company limited by guarantee, so that it could enshrine proper governance into the future. Loddon Mallee Housing Services Limited ( LMHS) was created.

1998 - 2004

A period of growth

The Community Connections Program, Housing Support for the Aged, Multiple and Complex Needs Program, Yp4 and multiple other support and homelessness prevention programs were obtained or launched. LMHS then absorbed the Shire of Campaspe and City of Greater Bendigo’s housing stock. In doing so, LMHS also took over the Echuca and Districts Emergency Housing, Cobaw Community Housing, Eaglehawk Youth Accommodation Program, Mallee Family Care’s emergency housing program in Swan Hill and Mildura, and the Mallee Regional Housing Council’s housing programs.

2004

PowerHousing founded

LMHS founded PowerHousingAustralia, the national peak body for the burgeoning affordable housing sector.

2004 - 2005

Building for tsunami victims

LMHS builds more than 50 townhouses for the Boxing Day tsunami victims.

2005

First registered Housing Association

LMHS becomes the first registered affordable housing association (AHA) in Australia.

2007

Invite to Parliament House

We are invited to participate in the Prime Minister’s Parliament House workshops on a future Australian plan for housing which continued the workshops we had been involved with in designing what became the National Rental Affordability Scheme.