Every day Margaret Lamb wakes up she is grateful - grateful to be alive and grateful to have a roof over her head, an affordable apartment in a new Anglicare development at Corrimal.
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The 65-year-old is one of 28 tenants "blessed" to be in the recently completed block on the Princes Highway, a move which has been life-changing for her.
A sudden turn of events in recent times left Mrs Lamb penniless, without a home and forced to live in a women's refuge.
"I was in the refuge i was looking for private rentals, and it was extremely difficult, it was horrendous," she said.
"I had to go on JobSeeker and [look for a job and a home at the same time]. I probably looked at 40 [rentals], I'd sit outside and cry, thinking 'this is what my life's become'.
"If you'd met me six months ago, I was a different woman, I was distressed, couldn't stop crying and a nervous wreck."
Sadly, an increasing number of older women like Mrs Lamb are in need of accommodation, according to Anglicare who manage the development.
"It's probably the single fastest increasing area of need within the affordable housing space, older women," said Bill Farrand, chief operating officer of community services.
"The quality of the accommodation [like this building] is making a real difference with people: they're feeling valued and respected."
The Corrimal block includes a mix of studios and one-bedroom dwellings and is part of an initiative of the NSW Government's $1.1 billion Social and Affordable Housing Fund, which is being delivered in partnership with non-government community housing providers.
The block was developed, and will be managed by Anglicare, who are constructing a further 550 properties across NSW as part of the program.
"We also have a heritage pub in Port Kembla, the Steelworks Hotel," Mr Farrand said.
"We have ambitions and have participated in the tender from the state government to redevelop that for another cohort of people."
Minister for Families, Communities and Disability Services Gareth Ward said the government did have a plans to sell off old social housing assets to reinvest in new ones, but would not comment if any homes around the Bellambi area would be part of that plan.
"Just as people move around through the course of their life, so to does the social and community housing portfolio has to change," Mr Ward said. "Because the needs of what was there when a lot of those properties were built in the '70s is very different to today."