We create and manage affordable rental housing options in the City of Port Phillip for single adults and young people who have faced homelessness and social exclusion and encourage our tenants to participate in the local community and share in the benefits of inner-city living.
We work with people who are most in need of an affordable, supportive place to live.

South Port Community Housing Group (SPCHG) is an incorporated association, with a committee of management of local community members, including three SPCHG tenants.
The event that led to the establishment of South Port Community Housing Group had its roots in the fact that the land at Emerald Hill (now called South Melbourne) was owned by Melbourne Protestant Orphanage. The site developed with a number of other buildings including houses being constructed. The orphanage owners decided in the late 1970s to sell up, and the Whitlam Federal Government funded the Hamer State Government to purchase the whole site.
Responsibility for the housing, including two rooming houses, was then passed to the State Department of Housing. The two privately owned rooming/apartment houses on the site, privately managed, were handed over to the newly formed South Port Rooming House Services Inc.
The organisation commenced management of four rooming houses during 1983-4 with numbers increasing steadily throughout the 1980s and 90s. During this era the housing stock effectively offered an option for people being made homeless by the decline in local affordable accommodation.
In recent years, SPCHG's housing stock has changed dramatically as a result of an upgrade program converting rooming houses into self-contained accommodation where all tenants have their own bathroom and kitchenette in a studio apartment. Now, less than 10% of the units managed are traditional, shared-facility, rooming house rooms.
In 2011 SPCHG under the Federal Nation Building community housing funding stream, received $11.5 million to construct 40 new one-bedroom apartments in Bank Street, South Melbourne, on land provided by the Catholic Church thanks to a longstanding good relationship with Father Bob Maguire.
In 2013-2014 SPCHG successfully campaigned to save 31 studio apartments for elderly persons in South Melbourne, being sold by a charitable trust. In July 2014 the organisation acquired ownership of the apartments for $5 million, assisted by a grant of $2.5 million from the State Government.
The organisation works closely with agencies like Inner South Community Health on community programs and facilitating health support for tenants. Most referrals now come from agencies like Sacred Heart Mission, HomeGround Services, Hanover Welfare Services, Ozanam House and Flagstaff

68

4

400

73

16

$18,117,524

$2,844,899

$311,756

Layfield Street and Emerald Street, South Melbourne redevelopments.

South Port is incorporated under the Associations Incorporation Act 1981.

SPCHG works closely with a large number of agencies including: having an established MOU with Star Health - continuing food response arrangements with Fare Share, Father Bob and Lentil's As Anything - weekly Social Meals delivery with Port Phillip Community Centre - St Peter and Paul's Catholic Church, South Melbourne - St Kilda Community Housing - Prahran Malvern Inner South Community Health Service - City of Port Phillip - Ozanam House - Launch Housing - Flagstaff - Salvation Army Crisis Centre and Youth Refuge St Kilda - St Kilda Youth Service - Igniting Change.