BY DAKOTA TAIT
A new initiative is hoping to address the Hunter's housing crisis by connecting homeowners with people in need of a roof over their head.
The Share Your Home program, launched by local foodbank provider Southlakes Incorporated, allows people to sign up as a host or as someone looking for a home.
CEO Christine Mastello says the community has embraced the idea.
"We started out because we run the Community Hair Project, and everywhere we were going around Australia giving free haircuts, people were saying, 'Can I have a homeless person?'," Ms Mastello said.
"I'm like, well they're not a puppy!"
"But as the question kept coming up, I thought, well, people must have a big enough heart to open their home."
The organisation will pay for a police check for the host, help organise a short-term lease agreement, and provide the person moving in with a pack of toiletries and other items.
Each homeless individual who signs up to the program will need to have their identity verified by a service provider such as a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter.
Ms Mastello says it's pretty simple from there.
"The homeless person checks out the postcode that they'd like to live in, finds a house hopefully in that postcode, and then we just ask that the homeless person and the host get to know each other for a little while, have a chat, see the house rules if there are any," Ms Mastello said.
"We match them up and it's amazing, and we've had some amazing stories already."
The initiative comes just months after the Hunter recorded an all-time low in rental vacancy, with just 0.7 percent of properties free last December.
A healthy market sits around 2.5 percent.
While Ms Mastello maintains the Government needs to take serious action to address the region's housing crisis, she says the program's already proving successful in the meantime.
"We have had a lot of ex-foster parents and just a lot of mums and dads, so it's all over the range," Ms Mastello said.
"It makes your heart so happy to know that people are so willing to do something so simple as to open your home, for three months, just to let people breathe again."
If you're interested in being a home or need a place to stay, find out more at www.shareyourhome.com.au.
