Case Studies

Steve* a 97-year-old resident of Mornington was referred to the Care Finder by concerned
neighbours. They reported that Steve was living in neglect, wore the same outfit covered in food
and urine stains each time the neighbours visited him, and they were concerned about his diet.

Mary* is a 88 year old single woman living alone in a private rental property. She has a severely autistic grandson living nearby and she does not wish to move away from her son and the grandson. She has no other source of income or savings except for the Age Pension which is approximately $1,200 a fortnight. Her rent was increased recently, and she is now paying $490 per week in rent.

Harold* is an older man with disability in his late 70s. He is a wheelchair user living in a rooming house with a private room and a bathroom and shared kitchen. He has lived in the same property for 13 years and considers it his home. The Community Housing Provider that manages the rooming house referred Harol to HAAG’s Care finder service.

Mary* is a HAAG member living in a retirement village in the west of Melbourne. She’s lived there since 2018, and enjoyed a couple of good years there before a new manager named Dean* started there in late 2019. Mary soon noticed tensions developing between her and Dean, but within a year these had erupted into outright harassment and bullying by the manager.

In January this year we received a referral from Beyond Housing in Seymour. Glen had moved back to Victoria to live with family after been a victim of a home invasion and serious assault in public housing in NSW. Glen was living in a caravan on a family member’s property at Seymour but he had been asked him to leave, and he was going to start camping by the river.

Jack and his dog Carlos had been living in his van for several years. He had no long-term housing since a family breakdown and had been moving regularly between different states in Australia. His daughter told him about the Home At Last service, so he called to find out if we could assist him.

David was camping with his dog Timmy on the Murray River near Cobram. He had been on the priority housing waiting list for 5 years. David said he had contacted a crisis housing access point several times but he was told there was no housing.

He’d heard about a Housing Information session organized by HAAG at the Cobram Community Centre in February, and decided to come along!

Sally is a woman in her 70’s living in a retirement village in Victoria’s North. Sally contacted HAAG’s Retirement Housing Advice Service (RHAS) in late 2021 after 18 months of attempting to resolve an issue with her leaking roof by herself. Sally originally reported to management her roof was leaking in 2020 after she noticed that her ceiling was damp, and water stained.

Trevor was referred to our service by the local crisis homelessness service Beyond Housing in December, after he had received an eviction notice due to the landlord wanting to sell. He had until 26 February to find housing, and wanted to move closer to his support networks and medical services in the Yarra Ranges.

Marie was 81-year-old and living in a very dishevelled, 120 year old cottage. She was renting for a number of years and had paid for things to be done on the cottage herself, as the landlord did not want to spend the money. She was understandable very worried she would get blown away in the next big storm, the cottage was very unsafe.

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