Now this is something that makes so much sense that it hurts.
The owners of The Addison Hotel in Kensington have a 12-month wait ahead of them for development of the old hotel, and decided the best use of that time is to open the hotel up as a pop-up refuge for homeless youth in Sydney.
Genius. Absolutely genius.
The owners of the hotel (TOGA and Gravtias) have launched The Addison Project – temporary housing that will give people between the ages of 16 to 24 somewhere safe to stay.
The hotel has 42 furnished, self-contained rooms, and will also provide space for a ‘pay what you can’ style supermarket run by OzHarvest, Thread Together for affordable new clothing and Orange Sky Laundry to come by once a week for folks to get their washing done.
There’s a whole bunch of empty spaces around the Sydney area, and TOGA’s Allan Vidor wants their decision to use their hotel for a Very Good Thing to influence other building owners to do the same.
Speaking to the ABC, Vidor notes that the state of youth homelessness in Australia is not something that government alone can change.
“No single level of government or service can tackle youth homelessness — innovative solutions must be borne from innovative collaborations between public and private sectors.” Vidor says.
Tbh this is absolutely something that others can learn from. Consider my faith in humanity restored.
Source: ABC.
Photo: Ray White.
Photo: Ray White.
