making room for everyone

Creating a foundation for health, safety and opportunity.

Above: Nurturing connection and cultural safety in the healing green rooftop garden.

The Make Room project is a powerful example of what’s possible when purpose-driven organisations collaborate to address homelessness with compassion and innovation.

Make Room is a partnership between Unison Housing, cohealth, City of Melbourne, and Ngwala Willumbong Aboriginal Corporation, supported by the Victorian Government and philanthropists.

The project has seen a council-owned building at 602 Little Bourke Street transformed into 50 studio apartments, designed to become a home for people who previously experienced chronic homelessness.

Make Room understands that chronic homelessness is often a complex, traumatic experience, which can mean people face challenges maintaining a tenancy. The support provided for Make Room tenants is underpinned by housing first principles, which acknowledges that people have a right to a home. Through trauma-informed approaches, Make Room fosters an environment where residents are supported, through connection and understanding, to sustain their tenancies wherever possible.

In FY25, cohealth provided 2,090 occasions of service to 52 residents of Make Room.

When a person is able to experience the stability and safety of a home, they are able to engage in supports that speak to their unique goals for the future.

While Unison manages the tenancies, cohealth works alongside Ngwala Willumbong to provide culturally safe on-site health and social services, including mental health and AOD support, women’s health, podiatry, physiotherapy, dietetics, oral healthcare, and legal support in partnership with Justice Connect.

By combining Unison’s expertise in providing stable, secure housing with our holistic health and social support, we’re not just addressing homelessness – we’re creating a pathway to improved health outcomes and lasting stability for some of Melbourne’s most vulnerable residents.

— Nicole Bartholomeusz, Chief Executive

Above: Make Room entrance, featuring artwork by Matthew Harris, depicting the star constellation above this exact location before colonisation. Photo courtesy of City of Melbourne.

Finding strength: Melissa’s journey toward change and connection

Melissa* has experienced extensive complex trauma, decades of homelessness and reoccurring substance use across her life. Melissa moved into an apartment at Make Room this year, signing her name on her own lease for the first time in her life.

Whilst living at Make Room, Melissa experienced a crisis point and there was an incident that may have resulted in tenancy action that could have led to eviction in a different tenancy. However, instead of being met with a traditional approach, Melissa was met with support, understanding, and a plan for change.

Using a trauma-informed and housing first approach, the Make Room team led by asking Melissa how she was, what had been happening for her at the time, and what she thought might safely support her in moments like this in the future.

Together, Melissa and Make Room created a ‘Team Around Me’ document that reminds Melissa of the support around her, including when times are tough. Melissa engaged meaningfully with her care team, which includes workers from a community-based service, cohealth, Unison and Ngwala, all of whom had a place in the ‘Team Around Me’.

With support from Ngwala, Melissa recently reconnected with family, a powerful circuit breaker and opportunity to reset. Unison and cohealth have also been able to work through information with Melissa that can grow her ‘tenancy skills’, and continue to support Melissa with the skills that will help her in long-term tenancies into the future.

Melissa’s time living at Make Room shows the importance of specialised approaches to supporting people who have experienced chronic homelessness to reconnect with community and their goals for the future. Make Room is not just about supporting a person to move into a house, but to move into a home with supports to thrive.

* For privacy, personal details have been changed.