CatholicCare Tasmania's Andy Witt and Michael Parkinson at the Launceston Y2I Homes site.

The $5 million Youth2Independence (Y2I) Homes program is delivering 20 modular one-bedroom units across four sites, plus 10 larger public housing properties, each of which will have a minimum of three bedrooms.

The four cluster home sites – in Burnie, Devonport, Launceston and Clarence – will each provide five studio units and access to shared amenities, with a sixth unit to house onsite support staff.

Work at the Launceston and Devonport sites was completed in May 2023, with the first tenants to move in from 1 July 2023. The Clarence and Burnie sites will be completed in coming months.

Inside one of the Y2I Homes pods in Launceston.

CatholicCare Tasmania has been awarded the contract to manage the new Y2I Homes program, which will provide onsite 24/7 support staffing for residents in the cluster homes and outreach support for residents with low support needs living in the share homes.

Andrea Witt, Executive Manager Family and Community Services at CatholicCare, said they were very proud to have the opportunity to deliver the service.

“CatholicCare is exceptionally excited to be working with Homes Tasmania and Government to be able to deliver this extremely innovative support model,” she said.

“We are very excited to have already had a lot of support from the community – community centres, businesses and TAFE – to be able to deliver a very innovative service that will work with young people to prevent homelessness into the future.

“There aren’t a lot of [housing] options for young people with very low income and high support needs, so this creative model enables us to be able to provide intensive support for young people and ensures that we are supporting them into the future so that they are not looking at facing homelessness as adults.

“Being able to provide a model like this where we have support on site 24/7 to be able to assist young people reach their potential is really important.”

The Y2I Homes pods at the Launceston site.

Y2I Homes Coordinator at CatholicCare Michael Parkinson expressed delight at seeing the program coming to fruition.

“It’s wonderful. In coming weeks, it will be a bustling hive of activity here [at the Launceston site]. It’s wonderful for the young people to get the opportunity to engage in the service and wonderful for the community as a whole,” he said.

The modular units have been built, delivered and installed by local company Podmatrix.

The Y2I Homes program will support about 50 young people every two years.

Y2I Homes expands our successful Youth2Independence program, which currently provides 121 beds across three sites – 46 beds at Trinity Hill in Hobart, 50 at Thyne House in Launceston, and 25 at Eveline House in Devonport.

The Y2I program is also being expanded, with work underway on a $17 million, 26-unit facility in central Hobart that is due for completion in the second half of 2023, and a $14.2 million, 25-unit facility in Burnie due for completion in the first half of 2024.Read more about the Youth2Indepence program here.

Read more about the Youth2Indepence program here.

The Y2I Homes pods at the Mornington site.