Andrew experienced a series of some of life’s most brutal obstacles: a relationship breakdown, health issues leaving him unable to work, a housefire and the unimaginable grief of losing a child. Now, after moving into Launch Housing’s community housing in Bellfield, Andrew is finally home. This is his story.

We are closer to experiencing homelessness than we might think

Two years ago, Andrew stood outside his property management office in a daze clutching his car keys.

“I just remember standing there, stunned. Thinking, where am I going to go?” Andrew had just handed over the keys to the home he had lived in with his daughter who he’d cared for as she lost her battle with cancer. Andrew had spent the last few months grieving and packing up her belongings and could not afford the place on his own.

Sometimes, it takes just one domino to set off a series of toppling events that collide into the next until, like Andrew, we find ourselves with nowhere to live.

The dominoes for Andrew fell in quick succession, after living what he likes to call “a relatively typical life” in the beachside suburbs of Melbourne. He and his wife of 30 years had a house, three children, two cars and a white picket fence. Andrew had worked as a real estate manager and computer developer.

After his divorce, Andrew’s health declined.

“I started having walking difficulties and I couldn’t work out what it was. I went to see a neurologist and found out it was a few things at once, including spinal myelopathy.”

Several surgeries and rehabilitation later, Andrew was somewhat back on his feet – with limited movement and a cane.

During his health challenges, his financial situation had gotten bad, unable to work most jobs or at all. He was isolated, unwell, and with little support. In his sixties, Andrew moved into a share house. One year later, that house caught fire, which left Andrew in an induced coma for two months.

The burns were severe. He had to undergo multiple skin grafts. When he was discharged from hospital, Andrew’s daughter took him to her home to take care of him.

But soon, Andrew would take back the role of caretaker when his daughter was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.

“Watching her die, it’s not something I can reflect on often.” he says, the wound still fresh.

Which brings us back to the day Andrew stood outside that office. A man who, after taking blow after blow in his life now found himself impacted by another domino falling – homelessness.

Hope in a crippling rental market

Andrew stayed with some friends for a limited time while he tried to find a permanent place.

“I was looking for anything, I was constantly getting rejected for rentals. People didn’t even respond to my texts.”

Andrew was put on the Victorian Housing Register. But with a waitlist of about 60,000 people, the housing register paints a stark image of Victoria’s housing crisis. In recent years, the government has invested millions into new housing developments with local councils and housing providers – including Launch Housing.

New social housing projects likes Bellfield are helping Victoria’s overburdened system

Late last year, Launch Housing’s social housing project opened with 58 new affordable homes in Bellfield. All residents here have come from that same housing register – a drop in the ocean perhaps, but for people like Andrew, who had been living in his car, it’s been a wave of change.

“I had a phone interview with one of my case managers, and I came in to meet Tessa.”

Tessa, Launch Housing’s Tenancy Manager at Bellfield, is a friendly and familiar face now to all residents at the complex. With an open-door policy, residents such as Andrew will find themselves downstairs for a cup of tea in the afternoon chatting.

“She showed me the room and I was blown away – a brand-new apartment. It’s got everything. It all happened so swiftly too.”

So, Andrew and his carload of belongings moved into Bellfield, full of relief and gratitude to be having this fresh safe start.

“I had a bed, but for a while, that was the only thing in the house. Then Tessa introduced me to one of the tenants next-door.”

A mother who happened to be upgrading some furniture gave Andrew a TV, drawers, coffee table, bookshelf and more.

“I guarantee, if you need help with anything just go and knock on any door in the place and they’ll help you.”

Andrew’s new life at Bellfield

Now six months into his residency, Andrew walks with more ease than ever before. From a man on the cusp of homelessness, overcoming the life-events he did over the course of just five years, he is relishing in this new life at Bellfield.

Sitting down in the sunny side of a communal patio at Bellfield, a handful of other resident’s pop in and out. Most of them are on a first name basis, and often spend sunny afternoons together out here. Many have similar traumas they’re recovering from, and many have experienced homelessness.

Andrew is no longer in the past, though he has the scars to remind him of where he has been. For the first time in his life, he feels grounded.

“I’m not so focused on goals, because I don’t know what’s going to happen next. I’m just embracing the now and trying to keep myself positive.”

But some lessons he does carry on his sleeve.

“I’ve learnt a lot, and am still learning, about humanity. It’s not very well to say, ‘I don’t need anybody’, but in actual fact you do.”