HAAG welcomes all members of Multicultural & Multifaith communities to access our housing services, to participate in our organisation and our campaigns for housing justice, and to work with us.
Our Multicultural & Multifaith working group helps inform our organisation’s service delivery as well as promote our services in the community.
When speaking with people of a language other than English, HAAG staff will use the VITS interpreting service.
Please call 1300 765 178 and ask for your language.
Community Languages
Latest Multicultural Community Work updates
HAAG welcomes diversity in the struggle for housing justice
HAAG is an organisation supporting older people who are directly experiencing the real-world effects of Australia’s housing affordability crisis. We reject and condemn attempts to blame this crisis on migrants and migration. …
Posted in: Multicultural & Multifaith Communities, News Updates
Hulya’s happy new home
Hulya, 59, was one of 13 clients we securely housed in a brand new housing project in Pascoe Vale. Hulya approached HAAG in March 2023. She was homeless, couch surfing with her adult children, but was so desperate to get her own place, where she could host her children and seven grandchildren, eat her traditional… …
Posted in: Multicultural & Multifaith Communities, Client Stories, Community Housing, Brokerage support, Housing Support
A light at the end of the tunnel
Joanna, 61, has Rheumatoid Arthritis as well as Carpal Tunnel syndrome. She was due to have knee and hip replacements, but she told us “I am not sure how long and painful the recovery will be after a hip or knee replacement. I am not in secure housing to recover, so I have no option… …
Posted in: Multicultural & Multifaith Communities, Client Stories, Public Housing, Care Finder, Housing Support
Community Language Resources
HAAG has developed in-language resources in 22 languages to help people understand their housing rights and options in their own language.
You can read and download the resources in your language here.
In 2011 the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported 19,934 non-English speaking people over 55 were renting in Victoria. It is essential that HAAG ensures that this group has equal access to the services we provide.
Following two projects focussing on ‘high risk’ communities, as well as our ongoing work in the CALD sphere, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) people make up 50% of our Home at Last service users.
Multicultural & Multifaith projects
In April 2015 HAAG and the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria (ECCV) launched the project: “Preventing Homelessness in older CALD Communities” which sought to improve the ability of older people from CALD backgrounds to navigate the housing/homelessness system.
This 12-month project – funded by the Lord Mayors Charitable Foundation- targeted 6 key language groups and aimed to increase their access to the Home at Last service. 16 Bi lingual workers were trained to deliver information sessions to their communities on housing rights and options. Following the project, the proportion of Home at Last clients from a CALD background increased from 34% to 60%.
One of the findings from this project was that CALD clients are reluctant to use services that are unable to understand their needs, which can involve religion, cultural practices, politics, family connection, migration history and community connection.
Due to the significance of this finding, a 6-month project “A home for diversity” was funded by the Lord Mayors Charitable Foundation to increase the capacity of services to work with people from a CALD background.
Multilingual Films
The below films have been developed in collaboration with community members in response to an increasing awareness of housing issues for older migrant and refugee communities. These films are fictional, but are based on common experiences that lead older people from culturally diverse communities to contact HAAG and Home at Last. The aim of the films is to increase awareness of the different pathways that can lead to housing issues, to increase awareness of Home at Last, and improve the ability of older people from culturally diverse backgrounds to navigate the housing/homelessness system.
Download the HAAG Membership form in your language
HAAG would like to see its membership and committee of management better reflect the diversity of the people using our services. If you are interested in joining the organisation to work towards housing justice for older people please call us on: 03 9654 7389 or fill in and send back a membership form.
