Helping rewrite the future with Veritas
Each year in the Bathurst region, Veritas House assists over 150 young people aged 16-24 who are homeless. Many are escaping violent or abusive domestic environments and have no option but to leave home.
Youth homelessness is often invisible to the general community as young people couch surf from place to place to avoid sleeping rough. Having no fixed address makes it difficult to get a job, find permanent accommodation or have a normal social life.
Veritas House helps to break the cycle of homelessness, by providing accommodation in a self-contained unit for a six month period to young people transitioning from a homeless refuge. The unit is rented to the young person at below market rate and they are provided with support to learn about managing their finances as well as home management skills. For many tenants, just like ‘Annie’, the unit is the first home where they have been able to feel safe.
At the end of the lease, Veritas House provides a rental reference which assists them to secure long term accommodation in Bathurst’s highly competitive rental market.
Annie has no doubt that without the help of Veritas House her life would be very different to the one that she has now.
“I am now working, completed my studies and have a place of my own. I now feel I have more control of my future,” Annie said.
The current unit was purchased in 2014 and was in desperate need of a renovation. The kitchen was over 30 years old and the furnishings had seen better days. Operating the unit on a non-commercial basis meant Veritas House did not have the funding to improve the home as extensively as they would have liked, and so applied for a Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation Grant.
A $50,000 grant from the Charitable Foundation enabled the unit to be fully renovated to include a new kitchen, bathroom and laundry as well as new furnishings. The result is a unit that will benefit the Bathurst community by helping to break the cycle of homelessness and disadvantage for generations to come.