A warm welcome on Brunswick Street: 65 years of hope and hospitality

It’s a chilly June Friday in inner suburban Melbourne, but there is warmth in the air as people living on the margins of society gather for lunch at St Mary’s House of Welcome.

The smell of cooking onions wafts from the courtyard through the building on busy Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. A mix of staff and volunteers prepare burgers, sausages and salads.

Chef Ryan works magic with largely donated ingredients. He reels off today’s menu. A simple lettuce salad, potato salad with egg, and a salad comprised of eggplant, sweet potato, rocket, fennel, pomegranate and dukkah. Dessert is apple cake.

St Mary’s House of Welcome is a safe, welcoming space for hundreds dealing with the many curveballs life can deliver.

Up to 90 per cent of the food served at St Mary’s House of Welcome is rescued or donated. Fruit and vegetables and baked goods are collected from the local Coles and Woolworths each day; Nando’s helps with protein, and agencies such as SecondBite supplement the menu. The Meals Program, which provides roughly 60,000 meals and more than 1,500 food hampers annually, costs $250,000 to run.

Inspired and founded by the Daughters of Charity, St Mary’s House of Welcome is a safe, welcoming space for hundreds dealing with the many curveballs life can deliver: rough sleepers; people living with disability, mental illness, chronic ill-health, substance abuse, insecure housing; those escaping domestic violence; hoarders with unsatisfactory living spaces, and people left in need by a sudden turn of events.

Workplaces, as part of their corporate social responsibility, pay $1,000 to work on the community barbecue, supplying eight staff to prepare and cook lunch. There are few spots left for the year, and coming up to Christmas, when many workplaces want to run a charitable team-building event, they might have a second barbecue during the week.

St Mary’s House of Welcome has just chalked up 65 years serving the community.

It receives some government funding but relies heavily on donations to provide around half of its income, including a grant last year from the Archbishop’s Charitable Fund, which contributes each year to a range of vital ministries within the Archdiocese of Melbourne.

I find that the work we do is really uplifting. It’s right at the coalface.

With an extensive career in hospital and aged care administration, St Mary’s House of Welcome chief executive officer John Fogarty stepped into the role around six months ago.

He knew about the important work of St Mary ‘s House of Welcome through an uncle who was a Christian Brother.

‘I find that the work we do is really uplifting. It’s right at the coalface,’ he says.

‘What we do, we do really well.’

But like many services, it is stretched.

Mr Fogarty says recent funding through the Peter and Lyndy White Foundation has enabled the service to open on Saturday mornings. The hope is that it will eventually be able to open Sundays by securing more funding. The need doesn’t stop at weekends.

He’d like more funding to make a concerted effort on case management, to ensure people are supported and connected with services.

The service welcomes everyone, including people living across the road in the Atherton Gardens Estate. While they have a roof over their heads in public housing, they face other challenges, including intergenerational poverty, social isolation and the rising cost of living.

Each day, hundreds of men and women are welcomed to join a program that includes access to showers and a laundry from 8.30am to 3pm, breakfast sittings between 8.30am and 9.45am, morning tea, and two lunch sittings between noon and 1.30pm, followed by programs and activities until 4pm.

Apart from the scheduled meal activities, St Mary’s House of Welcome has a drop-in-centre feel. A group is gathered around a pool table. On Fridays, up to 40 join the Mood Swingers choir. There is footy tipping, cooking classes, film sessions, barista classes, craft groups, jig saws and books.

The Ezycharge mobile phone–charging station is among the busiest operated by the company in Australia. It’s free to use. For many people living rough, a mobile phone is a lifeline.

St Mary’s House of Welcome is often picking up the slack from service creep, trying to find housing and other services not necessarily in its remit.

Most days, James goes to St Mary’s House of Welcome and has breakfast and a shower, washes his clothes and eats lunch. At the end of the day, he looks for somewhere safe to sleep.

James, who has been living rough for nearly four years, says he initially didn’t think St Mary’s House of Welcome was for him.

When he fell ill with Guillan-Barre syndrome—a rare autoimmune illness attacking nerves and causing weakness and tingling in the legs and arms, which can lead to paralysis—he wasn’t expected to pull through.

Self-employed, James lost his livelihood and initially lived with a sister, but it was crowded, and he saw himself as a burden, so he hit the road with a backpack.

James, 62, says he arrived at St Mary’s House of Welcome five times before—with the help of an outreach worker—he finally walked through the doors on the sixth visit.

‘I didn’t think it was for me, and I didn’t want to take services away from other people,’ he says.

James says he sleeps rough with a well-honed eye to keep out of trouble and look out for his safety. He has just had a stint squatting for the first time.

‘I met the owner and pointed out to him that the house that was empty next door had every window broken but his house didn’t. He was happy for us to live there until he sells next year,’ he says.

However, James says homelessness comes with mental health and other issues, and it’s not always easy to find people you can live under the same roof with.

He says most days he goes to St Mary’s House of Welcome and has breakfast and a shower, washes his clothes and eats lunch. At the end of the day, he looks for somewhere safe to sleep.

St Mary’s House of Welcome grew out of the nuns’ efforts to feed homeless men. In the early days, they would offer a sandwich but longed to provide something a bit more substantial.

The clientele is roughly 65 per cent men and 35 per cent women.

Schools such as St Kevin’s, Xavier, the Academy of Mary Immaculate and Melbourne Grammar have weekly commitments, as does Australian Catholic University. In addition to food and practical resources, St Mary’s House of Welcome hands out tents, sleeping bags, clothing and other supports.

St Mary’s House of Welcome grew out of the nuns’ efforts to feed homeless men. In the early days, they would offer a sandwich but longed to provide something a bit more substantial.

A public appeal enabled a property at 167 Brunswick Street to be bought for £5,000, providing a kitchen and dining room, clothing storage, office space, shower facilities for men, and bathing and clinic facilities.

History records that on the first day it opened on 30 May 1960, more than 90 men came for soup, sandwiches and tea.

Within a year, more than 250 people were arriving each day at lunchtime for a sit-down meal.

The current purpose-built building at 165–169 Brunswick Street was officially opened in April 2009. The former laneway, in which people lined up, is now a covered entrance area. St Mary’s House of Welcome recently added laundry services, thanks to a fundraising drive.