It has been four years in the planning, but a project designed to provide some of the most basic necessities to people doing it tough across the Corner Inlet district is finally set to become a reality.
Manna Gum Community House has secured the full construction funding needed for a dedicated hygiene station in Foster, providing a hot shower, toilet and laundry facilities for people who might otherwise have nowhere to access them.
The project shines a light on a level of hardship that can easily go unnoticed in a small rural community. People experiencing homelessness in the district are not necessarily sleeping on the street. Some are living in cars, moving between friends' couches or staying in temporary accommodation. Others have a roof over their heads but are struggling financially to the point where heating water, running a washing machine or even keeping the electricity connected can become difficult.
For Manna Gum, the hygiene station is a practical response to a problem that four years of consultation and research has shown is very real.
"Having access to a hot shower and clean clothes is a basic human right, and this hygiene station will offer dignity and practical support to those who need it most," Manna Gum Community House Board president Cath McGlead said.
The new facility will be built at Manna Gum Community House by Landmark Pro and will include a fully disability-accessible unisex shower and toilet cubicle, together with a separate laundry containing a washing machine, dryer and hand-washing basins.
The origins of the project can be traced to community consultation undertaken in 2022, which identified affordable housing, homelessness and the absence of basic hygiene facilities among the significant unmet needs within the Corner Inlet area.
In 2024, South Gippsland Shire Council provided funding through its Community Grants Program, allowing Manna Gum to engage IS Architecture to undertake two years of feasibility work.
This year the project took its biggest steps forward. Foster Rotary Club and Toora Lions Club each committed $10,000, before the Board of Promontory District Finance Group Ltd approved the remaining $144,170 in July through the Community Bank Toora & Foster Major Project Fund.
The funding is a milestone for the Community Bank as well as Manna Gum. The hygiene station is the first project funded through the Major Project Fund since it was established in 2015.
Promontory District Finance Group marketing committee chair Marge Arnup said the Community Bank was proud to help bring the project to fruition. "The Community Bank Toora & Foster is very proud to be the major contributor to the provision of the hygiene facility," she said. "This project is yet another example of how we partner with local organisations to support our Prom district community."
While the facility itself will be relatively modest, the circumstances that have led to its construction tell a much bigger story. David Barrett
