Wintringham Hostel, Port Melbourne is an attractively designed complex for 35 elderly homeless men and women. The hostel is built in a central location in Port Melbourne which enables the residents to live in familiar communities. Design and construction are carried out on environmentally sustainable and Feng Shui principles that encourage feelings of self-worth, individuality and ownership among the residents. Great care is taken to avoid the impression of an institutional hostel.
At a total cost of $1,545,600, the project received both private and public funding and is already being replicated elsewhere in the State.
Melbourne is the second largest city in Australia and is located on the south-eastern coast. With a population of 3,200,000, it is the youngest city of its size in the world. Port Melbourne is a bayside suburb that has remained relatively immune from the process of gentrification that has occurred in most other inner urban Melbourne suburbs. Like all large cities, Melbourne has a significant population of homeless people. These have been traditionally housed in a variety of rooming houses, cheap hotels or night shelters that are increasingly becoming places of violence and intimidation.
