Crisis centre in crisis

By Lia Bichel
A CRISIS centre is unable to expand vital services to meet growing demands in Casey because of space constraints in its Narre Warren office.
For nine years, the Casey North Community Information and Support Service (CNCISS) has been lobbying for a larger centre to be built with four other community service organisations.
Manager Susan Magee said they needed a bigger premises to meet the growing demands of people in need.
“We are unable to extend our services to meet the growing need because we have no where to re-locate,” Ms Magee said.
“The opportunity for an appropriate building is low at this end.”
The inability to find suitable premises echoes the needs of many of the people who use CNCISS’s services.
Ms Magee said one of the biggest problems Casey families were facing was housing stress.
“There are a lot of people with housing stress. Housing takes a huge chunk of people’s income,” she said.
“A lot of people are struggling with day to day expenses, which come from a combination of influences. Some people are still recovering from the Global Financial Crisis, the cost of living has also increased, such as utility bills, supermarket shopping and educational expenses.
Ms Magee said in the last financial year, 3918 people needed emergency relief, up 20 per cent from the previous year. There was also a rise in the number of people with family breakdowns, a 77 per cent increase in the number of bankruptcy applications and a 50 per cent increase in people accessing the services with mental health issues.
“These are huge numbers and it is really sad,” Ms Magee said.
“If we had more space, we could try to attract funding for more programs to help the people in need- but we need the funding support for a commercial rent and for a bigger facility.”
City of Casey Councillor Bob Halsall yesterday proposed that council work with the centre to help it move into a larger premises, contacts State and Federal MPs to seek funding to fit out a more suitable accommodation and seeks an indication from the Federal Government as to the status of a proposed facility in Webb Street, Narre Warren.
“We can’t afford to sit still and not try something” Cr Halsall said.
Councillors unanimously agreed to the proposal.