St Mary's House of Welcome St Mary's House of Welcome

St Mary's House of Welcome stands with the vulnerable and disadvantaged, offering support, solutions and hope.

Each year, St Mary's House of Welcome serves over 42,000 meals and provides essential support services to nearly 3,000 people.

Material support, showers, laundry facilities, social inclusion and wellbeing activities, referrals, legal aid and housing assistance, are all services provided to the more than 200 people who visit St Mary's House of Welcome each day for help.

St Mary's House of Welcome focuses on supporting those people in need.

We consider, how each person, can best be empowered to improve his/her own situation

The centre that you see today had its humble beginnings in St. Vincent's Hall in Nicholson Street, Fitzroy. Here, the Daughters of Charity ran a Hostel for young country girls who were working in Melbourne.

Times were very hard with little work and even less cheap accommodation. Many men were sleeping in parks and wearing the same clothes day after day. Unemployment benefits were not available and many individuals and families were struggling. The Daughters responded to this situation by handing out food parcels from St. Vincent's Hall and St. Anne's in Carlton (another hostel). The Daughters did what they could but it was becoming obvious that the people needed better care.

In 1958 a local resident, Ms Mary Dougherty, left the Daughters a legacy of 2,000 pounds for the purpose of setting up a meal centre in Fitzroy. A property at 167 Brunswick Street was for sale at 5,300 pounds. The legacy helped pay for the deposit, but the Daughters needed to raise the rest of the money to finalise the purchase.

❊ Address ❊

 ℅ Ngar-go
 ⊜  165-169 Brunswick St Fitzroy  View Map
 ✆ Telephone: (03) 9417 6497

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❊ Web Links ❊

➼ St Mary's House of Welcome 

➼ smhow.org.au






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