A home is more
than somewhere to sleep.
It should be a place where one feels a profound sense of belonging, comfort and safety. An environment where one’s heart is at ease. More than a place, but also a feeling.
Fresh Hope Communities has been providing care and accommodation since 1936, catering for people on the margins. As the housing affordability crisis deepens across NSW but in particular in Sydney, this is a need that Fresh Hope Communities is compelled to assist in addressing.
Governments worldwide are searching for solutions to this critical issue, and we are pleased to begin playing a part in striving to address housing affordability with our first built-to-rent affordable housing community, Nightingale Marrickville.
The land on which the project “Nightingale Marrickville by Fresh Hope Communities” has been built is located at 387-389 Illawarra Road, Marrickville. The title to this property is held by the Churches of Christ Property Trust as trustee for churches of Christ in NSW and ACT. The land was first purchased in 1891 by Marrickville Church of Christ, with the first permanent church building constructed in 1912. It was built to accommodate the growing congregation and to provide a venue for the church’s community welfare activities.
In 2016 the faith community meeting at the Marrickville church had declined significantly. The building required substantial maintenance to meet modern day building and compliance standards. As the stewards of the property, churches of Christ in NSW and ACT discerned that the land would best be used in a way in which it could be repurposed to serve the local community of Marrickville once more.
To achieve this goal, churches of Christ in NSW and ACT provided a ground lease of the land to their welfare and charitable works arm, known today as Fresh Hope Communities. The stated purpose for this site was affordable build-to-rent accommodation for the local community to be constructed with the purpose of assisting in providing a solution to the growing housing affordability crisis in Sydney, while also addressing the societal impact of social isolation, particularly post the COVID-19 pandemic.
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