Several rooms at Canberra's one-of-a-kind public housing estate are full of furniture and waiting for tenants, thanks to a mammoth effort from businesses across the ACT.
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Canberrans will get their first look inside the Common Ground project on Saturday at an open day being held between 11am and 2pm at the Gungahlin site.
In the completed rooms, a fully-furnished lounge room complete with a couch and dining room set looks out over the Gungahlin shopping precinct, while two wicker chairs sit on the balcony in the sun.
Common Ground Canberra director Diane Kargas said she would very proud to see the project, which is due to open in May, come to fruition.
"This is just amazing, at the moment to see this beautiful building, more beautiful than I anticipated, the views are incredible," she said.
"What a wonderful start for people who are going to get themselves back on the road to a great future.
"This will be just tremendous for them."
When completed the project will house 20 one-bedroom units for people who were previously homeless, while another 20 would be made available for people as affordable rental properties.
Ms Kargas said businesses and government departments across Canberra had either donated items either for free or below cost to help furnish the apartments.
"Ikea have donated enough furniture for 20 apartments, while Domayne have have donated at below cost ... to put 20 microwaves in," she said.
Ms Kargas said government departments had provided high-quality desks, chairs and cutlery from their surplus supplies to help fit out the communal dining and computer areas.
"The Uniting Church down here is preparing a welcome pack for each resident while Canberra Quilters have made a quilt for every resident," she said.
"It has been amazing that the community has come on board. I'm just blown away by how wonderful they've all been. It's just been tremendous."
For more information, visit www.commongroundcanberra.org.au.
