{"id":22738,"date":"2026-06-01T20:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T20:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/22738\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T20:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T20:47:08","slug":"vacant-properties-across-sydney-used-as-meanwhile-use-transitional-housing-for-women-in-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/22738\/","title":{"rendered":"Vacant properties across Sydney used as ‘meanwhile use’ transitional housing for women in need"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five years ago, Julie’s life was in what she describes as “disarray”.<\/p>\n

Her son had recently died, a serious injury had left her unable to work and her partner of 10 years had gone back to the UK.<\/p>\n

“We were in the middle of a pandemic and I ended up with no income and I didn’t know what I was going to do,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

A total of 57 women stayed at Mosman House during its tenure. (Supplied: Women’s Community Shelters)<\/p>\n

But then, Julie, whose last name has been withheld for privacy reasons, moved into a heritage-listed 18-bedroom house in Sydney’s lower north shore with views of the harbour.<\/p>\n

That centuries-old mansion, which quickly became Julie’s safe haven, was Mosman House.<\/p>\n

The property was left vacant after Mosman Private Hospital shut its doors in 2019, and subsequently it became a transitional home for women over 50 escaping homelessness and domestic violence.<\/p>\n

“It just helped me so much to have that safe place to sit back and just try to work out what the hell had happened to me,” Julie said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Julie credits the transitional home for its support and helping her get back on her feet. (ABC News: Warwick Ford)<\/p>\n

Lengthy wait for development<\/p>\n

The owner of the land, Twilight Aged Care, had plans to redevelop the site, but it would be years before construction began due to lengthy planning processes.<\/p>\n

“We were left with a building that was no longer fit for purpose, vacant, and we needed a plan,” CEO Niamh Mannion said.<\/p>\n

That is when the company teamed up with local charity Women’s Community Shelters and social housing provider Link Wentworth to turn it into transitional housing while it sat empty.<\/p>\n

It opened in 2020 and a total of 57 women stayed in the house.<\/p>\n

The land has since been returned to Twilight Aged Care for development as originally planned.<\/p>\n

It was an example of ‘meanwhile use’, where vacant properties waiting to be sold or redeveloped are used to provide short-term housing.<\/p>\n

\"Twilight<\/p>\n

Ms Mannion says the site was vacant for a few years, and therefore was viable as meanwhile use housing during that period. (Supplied: Twilight Aged Care)<\/p>\n

Bringing the model to life<\/p>\n

Women’s Community Shelters CEO Annabelle Daniel recently pitched the model to a room of developers and industry stakeholders in Sydney.<\/p>\n

The charity first tested the idea at a vacant site called Beecroft House in the city’s north-west, which continues to house women over 55.<\/p>\n

“That enabled us to prove the model, bring it to life, and then replicate it and scale it,” Ms Daniel said.<\/p>\n

It now runs four other meanwhile-use properties around Sydney, supplying residents with medical services, counselling and advocacy to find permanent housing.<\/p>\n

It comes as demand for social housing for women over 55 remains on the rise.<\/p>\n

\"Supplied:\"Beecroft Beecroft House continues to house women over 55. \/ Supplied: Women’s Community Shelters<\/p>\n

As of June last year, there were more than 10,000 older women waiting on the NSW Housing Register.<\/p>\n

That was up from around 8,500 the year before, and 7,700 a decade ago.<\/p>\n

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, a similar increase in need for support services could be seen across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Between 2011 and 2025, the number of older women accessing homelessness services in Australia rose by around 8 per cent year-on-year.<\/p>\n

Delivering roofs over heads quickly<\/p>\n

NSW Housing Minister Rose Jackson said meanwhile use was a way to supplement social housing while more permanent solutions were being built.<\/p>\n

“We are looking at ways we can deliver roofs over heads quickly, and meanwhile use is a really emerging part of that,” Ms Jackson said.<\/p>\n

“Often with meanwhile use, you require a different use of the building \u2026 previously the planning system just lost its mind over that different use, we’ve cleared that pathway now.”<\/p>\n

The difficult part is convincing the owners of vacant properties to offer up their empty site.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ms Jackson says meanwhile use housing is a suitable option while permanent solutions are being built. (ABC News: Warwick Ford)<\/p>\n

Link Wentworth chief executive Andrew McAnulty acknowledged some development stakeholders felt hesitant due to something called vacancy risk.<\/p>\n

It is the risk that once final approvals have been granted for a property, construction may be slowed down if it takes a long time to find other housing for residents.<\/p>\n

It is why the model includes the involvement of a social housing provider who works to find ongoing housing for residents when meanwhile use availability ends.<\/p>\n

More than 80 per cent of the women who passed through Mosman House went directly on to permanent housing.<\/p>\n

Women’s Community Shelters only recommended meanwhile use in properties that would be empty for over 12 months to ensure the women were provided with stable accommodation.<\/p>\n

“We don’t want to create this idyllic scenario \u2026 and then have people enter into homelessness,” Ms Daniel said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ms Daniel has been pitching this model to developers and industry stakeholders. (ABC News: Warwick Ford)<\/p>\n

Camaraderie among women in need<\/p>\n

Mosman House onsite manager Robyn Mathot-Gwozdecky was there when the women moved out of what had become their home.<\/p>\n

“I had the relationship with all the women there to be able to assure them that we will look after you and everything is going to be OK,” Ms Mothot-Gwozdecky said.<\/p>\n

“It’s a very important thing, and was very important to me.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ms Mathot-Gwozdecky got to know the women at Mosman House closely. (ABC News: Warwick Ford)<\/p>\n

Julie is now living in permanent housing in the nearby suburb of Cammeray.<\/p>\n

She felt grateful to Mosman House, and said she remained in touch with many of the women she met during her time there.<\/p>\n

“I hold a place in my heart for them, we went through some really special times, highs, lows, laughter, tears,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We heard each other’s stories, and we were there for each other.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five years ago, Julie’s life was in what she describes as “disarray”. Her son had recently died, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[21477,4841,21480,3545,21475,21474,21484,21479,21485,16152,21476,21478,596,17957,3353,21483,247,21473,21482,21481,21472,21471],"class_list":["post-22738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-beecroft-house","tag-domestic-violence","tag-former-mosman-private-hospital-site","tag-housing","tag-housing-models","tag-meanwhile-housing","tag-meanwhile-use-housing","tag-meanwhile-use-housing-explained","tag-meanwhile-use-housing-for-victim-survivors","tag-mosman","tag-mosman-house","tag-north-shore","tag-nsw","tag-nsw-housing-minister-rose-jackson","tag-rose-jackson","tag-social-housing-provider-link-wentworth","tag-sydney","tag-transitional-housing","tag-twilight-aged-care","tag-women-over-the-age-of-50-escaping-homelessness-and-domestic-violence","tag-womens-community-shelters","tag-womens-shelter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}