The private operator is facing at least two years to redevelop its 90-bed RAC. It has worked out how to provide it as accommodation to women in need at no cost.
An initiative led by Sally Taylor, Managing Director of Retirement by Moran, they bought The Wesley Mission's Wesley Taylor Village and Residential Aged Care home adjacent to the beach at Narrabeen, 23km northeast of Sydney‘s CBD, in October 2023.
The plan is to redevelop the 9,234sqm site as a retirement village but meanwhile the empty 90-bed aged care home sits there.
The challenge in short term rentals is managing the tenants and exiting them when the time comes to rebuild – legal, insurance and brand risk, to name a few.
Sally was determined to use the vacant space for good, and as a lawyer drove putting in place the required safeguards for all involved.
She made contact with Northern Beaches Women's Shelter and offered the property at no cost to provide transitional accommodation to women in need.
Sally told us “There is the most phenomenal need for housing for many people in very dire situations - and very sadly one of the largest demographic groups urgently needing temporary housing are older women and women and children.”
“ What we have done demonstrates the fantastic opportunity for other operators to make available their empty RACs and ILUs”.
“The NBWS have created a fantastic model for transitional housing whereby women who need low-cost housing can stay for up to 2 years while they work to save for a bond, or get access to permanent social housing.”
“The majority of women tend to stay for between 3 months to 6 months and they have a case-manager within the NBWS that works with them to find a permanent solution.”
“We worked closely with NBWS to be able to satisfy the key risk factors that tend be of concern - termination risk, liability risk and reputational risk.”
“A key feature of this model is that the women who are housed in the empty RAC enter the accommodation under a case management arrangement and do not have a formal tenancy lease that can make it difficult in the future to mange their exit. Further, we have put insurance requirements in place so that NBWS assume any public liability risk that may arise from their activities.”
“These women come from a variety of backgrounds - many are tertiary educated, had families, children, jobs, - but through misfortunate, a bad divorce, an injury or just a period of unemployment, as well as a variety of other reasons that could happen to any of our mothers, wives, sisters, daughters - these women have found themselves without a safe and secure place to live while they get back on their feet.”
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Sally and the NBWS are keen to share what they have learnt, including the legal documentation etc.
