1
Introduction and service
context
1.2
Whittlesea Community Connections (WCC)
provides a range of programs and services to help
overcome disadvantage and increase community
participation within the City of Whittlesea. In 2013,
WCC implemented a Housing Brokerage and
Support Project (HBSP) to respond to the
increasing number of clients presenting to WCC
with experience of recurrent, long-term
homelessness or who were at risk of
homelessness. The overall goal of the project was
to assist low income households to gain access to
and stabilise their private rental housing through
the provision of brokerage loans matched with
case management support.
The main source of data to inform the evaluation
was qualitative in nature drawn from client and
external stakeholder interviews and a staff focus
group. The aim of the client interviews was to elicit
qualitative accounts of their experience of the
support process and the difference the program
has made to their housing circumstances and to
other aspects of their lives. A total of eight clients
or 44% of the 18 clients provided with a brokerage
loan were interviewed. The semi-structured client
interviews were undertaken at WCC by the author
and were between ½ and 1 hour in duration (see
attached interview schedule in appendix 1). The
translating phone service was used for two
interviewees with English as a second language
who required an interpreter. RMIT University
ethics approval was sought and granted prior to
commencing the interviews. Clients were initially
invited to participate in an interview via their case
worker through distributing a prepared
background statement. Informed consent was
sought by the interviewer prior to commencing
interviews (see attached in appendix 1). The
interviews were not tape recorded.
The project was funded by a combined seeding
grant from four philanthropic funders: Jack
Brockhoff Foundation ($12,000), Mercy
Foundation ($10,000), Sidney Myer Fund ($10,000)
and the Ian Potter Fund ($34,000). Additional in
kind support for the project was provided by
integr