The first sod was turned on St Vincent de Paul Society’s $15.8 million redevelopment of Freeman House in Armidale last Friday by the Minister for Regional Australia Simon Crean, Beverley Kerr, President Matthew Talbot Homelessness Services and Independent Member for New England Tony Windsor to mark the beginning of construction of the specialist homelessness and drug and alcohol rehabilitation service.
Simon Crean emphasised the importance of partnerships in St Vincent de Paul’s successful application for Regional Development Australia Funding which enabled the redevelopment to move forward.
“This project represents a strong investment partnership between the Federal Government and St Vincent de Paul Society. The Society contributed $7.3 million to the $15.8 million upgrade,” he said.
“I think the important extended initiative about this redevelopment is the training dimension, because it’s one thing to give people comfort refuge, rehab facilities, it’s another dimension to give them the second chance, in some cases a third chance. And education is the key to that, it doesn’t matter which environment you talk about, education and training is the ticket to self sustainability, and we are confident that, with the combination of the dedication of the great staff here, but also of the facilities that we’ve provided, that they’ll be servicing, effectively, a lot more people.”
St Vincent de Paul have operated Freeman House since 1979, offering a specialist homelessness and drug and alcohol rehabilitation service. The redevelopment is due for completion by mid-2013, with the tender for the construction awarded to local building firm Buildplan. Once completed, it will have a 24-bed residential rehabilitation unit, 10-bed detox and homelessness unit, six independent transitional units and a learning centre for day programs.
Matt Cleary, Executive Officer for the Mathew Talbot Homeless Service, said the St Vincent de Paul Society is committed to providing crisis accommodation for homeless people and drug and alcohol rehabilitation. “About three years ago the team here in Armidale felt that a new facility was essential to address the need, now and into the future,” he said.
“October 2013 is our planned completion date for the redevelopment and, at the moment, we continue to provide a service in temporary accommodation.
“Currently we are a 16-bed facility with outreach services focusing mainly on drug and alcohol rehabilitation. The new facility will include drug and alcohol rehab and crisis accommodation for men and women.
“However, the new program that we will be able to offer is medicalised detox which currently doesn’t exist in this region.
“It is about a whole of journey experience in terms of dealing with the medical symptoms, as people have withdrawal from drug and alcohol and then dealing with the social and emotional needs of rehab.
“We will also have six house facilities for transition post-rehab to ensure success in our program.”
