TRANSCRIPT
Summer holidays are a prosperous time for most tourist destinations. But Sydney’s Song hotel is focussed on more than making money. It’s backing the YWCA’s housing projects for women in need. General Manager Jon Ackary explains.
“25% of every dollar spent in the hotel goes straight back to YWCA. You buy a $4 coffee, a dollar goes to YWCA, you buy a $40 steak, $10 goes YWCA. We contribute millions of dollars to YWCA. And then YWCA's mission is to create affordable housing for women in need.”
And the need is rising, up by 20 per cent in recent years according to Homelessness Australia. Pooja Soni is a specialist homelessness case manager at YWCA.
“The women who are fleeing domestic violence, the single women, older women, young women with the kids as well, we are getting more referrals of these women.”
The YWCA is a national not-for-profit organisation that has supported at-risk women for more than 140 years. Each year, YWCA provides 130,000 nights of secure and affordable accommodation. But Ms Soni says demand far outstrips supply.
“People are on the wait list and there is a big risk because of it for the women or the families. So, women are living with the violent perpetrators in the house, that's a big risk for them and for the kids as well. And they end up being in a caravan, sleeping in the gardens or in the trains as well. So it's not safe for women, not for any woman.”
Ms Soni migrated from India in 2017. Although qualified as a doctor, she re-trained for social work in Sydney and now works on the frontline of this worsening crisis.
“Rent is rising a lot all over Australia, I can say. So, it's very hard to afford for the people. Like if it's hard for the people who are working, then it's very hard for the people who are at risk.”
And Ms Soni is among many grateful to the Song Hotel, for its funding support. The hotel is among Australia’s 12,000 social enterprises, and many finance charities. Tara Anderson is CEO of leading industry body, Social Traders.
“Social enterprises each year give almost $38 million to charitable causes. And this is one of the really important ways that they create impact. So, these are businesses that combine the heart of a charity and the head of a business and do both things at the same time.”
In fact, social enterprises contribute more than 16-billion dollars to the economy each year and employ more than 200-thousand people, according to a recent Social Traders report. And Ms Anderson says revenues are rising.
“Despite the challenging market conditions, their revenue is increasing by 10% over a five year period. And that is partly because they are incredibly passionate about what they do.”
It’s more than a century since the YWCA bought the multi-story Song Hotel building in Sydney’s Wentworth Avenue. General Manager Jon Ackary explains.
“So, it started as a hostel for YWCA members, mostly coming from country New South Wales. It was an accommodation facility, they were housing some women who were escaping domestic violence as well. And then that sort of morphed into a hotel.”
Today, profits from the refurbished 156-room commercial hotel help women into affordable homes. For Jon Ackary, it’s a win-win.
“It’s just a dream to, as a hotelier, to do something like that and makes such impact for other people. I'm super proud. It's rewriting the commercial world, if you like. Everyone thinks that there has to be someone behind it who's making a lot of money and driving it. Well, no, there can be driven people in social enterprise as well because we have a purpose. So that's what drives us.”
