Dear Friends,

It’s Homelessness Week, so what better time to relaunch “Welcome News” – St Mary’s House of Welcome’s bi-monthly newsletter keeping you up to date with what’s going on in our wonderful community!

As we head into a more Covid-normal existence in Victoria, and we move into the colder months, St Mary's House of Welcome is taking a stepwise approach to easing back to our mission work as an engagement hub.

As we consider the past year, and look towards the coming 12 months, we are heartened by the fact we have offered hope, and will continue to offer hope to some of the most vulnerable people in our community. Inspired by the spirit of the Daughters of Charity, our mission and values remain central to the way we serve those who rely on us for help.

For many years prior to 1960, men who were homeless and disadvantaged lined up outside St Vincent’s Hall in Fitzroy to receive a sandwich from the Daughters of Charity at lunch time. The Sisters were never satisfied with this make-shift service and longed to have a Centre to which these men could be invited to be served a meal with dignity.

As a community, we are facing what is arguably one of the toughest times in recent history.

Covid-19 has already upended our society in ways that would have seemed unimaginable just a few months ago. And we are all uncertain when this will end.

I’m sitting here writing this note to you feeling a little stunned that it is almost the end of another year.

So much has changed here at St Mary’s House of Welcome in the past 12 months or so. So many wonderful developments and achievements… So many exciting plans for the coming year and beyond. If the time has flown, surely it’s because we have all been so busy!

It goes almost without saying that the overarching cause of homelessness is poverty, but not all people who are poor become homeless.