About

OUR TEAM

Carla Raynes
Manager and Co-founder Home Share Melbourne

Carla is a passionate social entrepreneur with a commitment to social justice and an interest in applying innovation to societal issues. She has a degree in Social Policy and Sociology, and also holds a diploma in Community Studies. She started her career working as a disability support worker, and has since held front line and senior positions within the homelessness sector.
Carla holds board positions within homelessness and animal charities. “I met my fellow founders in 2018 and knew that we were going to do big things together. We developed Home Share Melbourne which we have seen change the lives of so many people so far and hope to keep growing and growing!”

Beris Campbell OAM
Board Director, HANZA, member of the Home Share Melbourne Planning Committee.

A champion for homeshare, Beris has witnessed firsthand the life changing benefits of skilled homeshare matching, and has been the main driver for the promotion and development of homeshare in Australia and New Zealand for over 20 years. She founded Melbourne’s first successful homeshare program in 2000, and managed it for ten years.
With a background in social work and over two decades’ worth of experience managing community services in local government, Beris has been HANZA’s Homeshare Program Consultant since 2011 and has played a key role in establishing HANZA as the voice and advocate for Homeshare in Australasia. She was awarded an OAM for services to homeshare in 2011.

Dr Meg Montague
Chair of the Board HANZA and member of the Home Share Melbourne Planning Committee.

Meg has worked all her life with community agencies that address disability, social and economic exclusion, homelessness and disadvantage. She began her career as a research officer at the Brotherhood of St Laurence, and has run her own research, policy and evaluation consultancy for over 30 years whilst volunteering on governing bodies with agencies such as Hanover Welfare Services (now Launch Housing) and Foodbank Victoria. She has qualifications in anthropology, public policy, facilitation and governance, and a longstanding passionate commitment to tackling homelessness. She has been involved in the homeshare movement for over 20 years, evaluating the first Victorian Homeshare Program in 2001. She also wrote the Homeshare Policy and Procedure Manual (2002) and Stage Two: Homeshare Melbourne Feasibility Study (2017). This study underpinned the founding development of Home Share Melbourne.

Heather Mckee OAM
Board Director HANZA and Chair of the Home Share Melbourne Planning Committee

Heather is an experienced manager of community services in local government, having served in senior management and social planning roles at several metropolitan councils, including at the City of South Melbourne Council and later City of Port Phillip and Footscray and Maribrynong Councils. Since 2016 she has worked closely with the other co-founders to develop the Home Share Melbourne Program at HANZA. Heather has extensive Board experience, having contributed to several not-for-profit boards over four decades.

ABOUT

What is Home Share Melbourne?

Homesharing has been a successful way of building connection and community since the early 1970s. It originated in the US and now operates in 18 countries. Homesharing differs from a typical roommate situation because, at its core, it is about two people helping each other. In the traditional model of homesharing, a person offers a room to a live-in flatmate, in exchange for help around the house and companionship. Every homesharing arrangement is unique depending on the needs, time, interests and abilities of the people involved.

Home Share Melbourne operates this traditional model as well as a variation, where Home Share Melbourne finds both an affordable housing option and a supportive flatmate, for a person living with a disability, someone seeking asylum or a young person at risk of homelessness. This creates more flexibility in where people can choose to live and in the costs and contributions for each person in the homesharing arrangement.

Homesharing benefits our whole community by increasing the availability of affordable housing, reducing loneliness, bringing people together who might not otherwise have met and providing a supportive environment for people to thrive and make connections with others.

Acknowledgements

Home Share Melbourne’s work is currently being supported by Victorian Women’s Benevolent Trust, Payton Foundation, individual donors and Flatmates.com.au. Previous supporters include the Jack Brockhoff Foundation, the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Fund and the City of Port Phillip

Who are we?

Homeshare Australia and New Zealand Alliance (HANZA)

Home Share Melbourne is run by HANZA, a not-for-profit organisation. Established in 2006, HANZA is increasing the number of lifestyle choices for youth, disabled and older people. Driven by volunteers, it is a collaborative partnership between existing homeshare providers and those interested in starting homeshare programs across Australia and New Zealand.

MEDIA

Watch Ricky's story from SBS insight

SBS Insight
12 May 2020

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IN THE NEWS

'It makes my life bigger': The win-win of Ricky and Josh's homesharing arrangement.

The Sydney Morning Herald
11 August 2018

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An antidote to loneliness

The Big Issue
3 December 2018

The Christmas 2018 edition of The Big Issue includes an in-depth feature about Homeshare and the new Home Share Melbourne program.

The piece examines two successful, but quite different, Homeshare matches: householder Philomena, who’s in her seventies, and her 20-year-old homesharer Rakesh, a student from Malaysia, and also 89-year-old Cecilia and her 61-year-old homesharer Jean. It’s fascinating to read about all four participants’ varying experiences of Homeshare - Jean is Cecilia’s first homesharer, but Philomena has had three different homesharers over the years, forming strong friendships with each of them. Both Jean and Rakesh discuss how Melbourne’s expensive rental market would make it impossible for them to stay in the city were it not for Homeshare: a great example of mutual benefit for both householder and homesharer!

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CONTACT

If you would like to join the program or just want more information, we’re happy help.
Get in touch via:
homeshare.melbourne@homeshare.org.au