As volunteers set up crisis accommodation in Bega on Friday, there was already talk about the families ready to move in as soon as the units were ready.
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The Social Justice Advocates of the Sapphire Coast (SJA), along with numerous volunteers from the community, were at the Bega Uniting Church last week installing and preparing three temporary housing units.
The units were the second delivery of such accommodation options purchased thanks to the incredible contributions from the community to the SJA's "It's Up to Us" campaign.
The campaign has raised upwards of $240,000.
Two units are already in Pambula. Another two are also planned for Eden once a suitable location has been confirmed.
Gavin Bell from the SJA said two of the three units being prepared in Bega already had tenants awaiting their completion. And both in Pambula were already occupied.
The units themselves are quite fascinating. At first they appear similar to a shipping container. However the sides lift up and wall panels swing out to lock into place, creating a functional tiny home three times the size of the original container.
Each is fully plumbed with a bathroom and kitchenette, and fully wired, needing only external connections to get them powered up.
They cost only about $33,000 each.
Mr Bell said the Bega Uniting Church had donated the land behind its church on a three-year memorandum of understanding, while the local Seventh Day Adventist church has taken upon itself to fully furnish each unit.
Other helping hands getting the units ready included local Lions Clubs, Bobbins Transport, Merimbula Sand and Gravel, and Sapphire Coast Flooring Xtra among others.
Mr Bell said tenants were placed by Mission Australia and South East Women and Children's Services (SEWACS).
He said the transitional help for those in urgent need of a home - single mothers were predominantly among the first tenants being placed - would also include SJA and the support networks sourcing whatever other services were required to assist.
"Trying to find them work is one example," he said.
Many hands make light work
Bill Foxwell was just one of the volunteers on site on Friday, lending his expertise to set up the units.
Gavin Bell said Mr Foxwell and another friend Mark Smith have been ready and willing to assist with every unit so far - as well as travelling the region's firegrounds installing sanitation pods and other crisis response facilities organised by the SJA.
"I've known these guys ever since Mick [Brosnan] came to town and we've been mates forever.
"Mick does a marvellous job - where he gets the time I don't know.
"I usually help out three or four days a week. Mark does five.
"It's just doing what's needed, when it's needed.
"It's one in, all in."
Also on site, impact drill in hand, was David Gallan, who is part of the SJA and also a member of Bega Uniting Church.
Like Bill, he was understated about what they were doing on behalf of those less fortunate in our community.
"The Christian ethos is not to bang a drum [about what we do]."
He also said the three-year memorandum with the SJA for the units was a stepping stone for longer-term plans for affordable housing options the church had for its land.
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Ben Smyth
I have worked as a journalist since 2005 and am now Editor of Australian Community Media mastheads in Bega, Merimbula and Eden
I have worked as a journalist since 2005 and am now Editor of Australian Community Media mastheads in Bega, Merimbula and Eden
