Some older residents on the Bellarine Peninsula will benefit from a 16-unit affordable housing complex in Point Lonsdale.
Bellarine Community Health (BCH) recently joined with affordable housing provider Sirovilla to celebrate the official opening of the refurbished Sirovilla Eric Tolliday Units in Point Lonsdale.
Under a partnership with Sirovilla, the 16 units on the grounds of BCH Point
Lonsdale have been refurbished and reopened to provide secure and affordable housing for older residents.
Board chair Kate Kerkin said Sirovilla was thrilled to support older independent community members with affordable, safe and secure accommodation.
“Our experience at Point Lonsdale so far has highlighted the need for this type of housing on the Bellarine Peninsula,” she said.
“We have more people on our wait list at Point Lonsdale than we do on the wait list at Anglesea which has been run by Sirovilla for over 10 years.”
The units were originally opened in two stages in the early 1980s. Funding for the first eight self-contained units came from the Commonwealth Department of Social Security and were opened in 1982. Further funding was secured, and another eight units were opened in 1984.
“It’s a partnership with an alignment of values, people, community and relationships that now sees the site once again active, units renovated and occupied and home to its own active and engaged community within a community,” BCH board chair Fay Agterhuis said.
The one-bedroom units were named in honour of the late Mr Eric Tolliday, who gave more than 30 years of service to the local community as treasurer of the Queenscliff and District Memorial Hospital Society and Queenscliff and District Community Health Centre.
