Who We Are

Our Story

The House of Welcome opened in Canley Vale in Sydney’s south-west in 2001, a project of the NSW Ecumenical Council with support from the Anglican, Catholic and Uniting churches and refugee organisations.

It was a compassionate response to refugees negatively impacted by government policies, providing emergency accommodation for refugees leaving Villawood Detention Centre on Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs), which gave them no access to health services or income support.

In the words of Sister Patricia Dunn OAM, the house – and a drop-in centre in Carramar that opened a year later – was vitally important because those working in the refugee sector “had so many times bemoaned the fact that people released from Villawood without money, clothing or English had nowhere to go. It was important for [them] to receive some sign that they could be welcome in the Australian community”.

Following the abolition of TPVs in 2007, the organisation’s focus shifted towards providing support to people seeking asylum living in the community on bridging visas.

In 2010, the NSW Ecumenical Council handed the project over to the Franciscan Friars under the auspices of the newly created St Francis Social Services.

House of Welcome moved to its current premises in Granville in 2017 – a former St Joseph’s convent in the Diocese of Parramatta – where it continues to provide wrap-around support to clients in the form of transitional housing, casework, financial assistance, material and medical aid, employment and mentoring support, and a community volunteer food bank.

A year later, HoW launched an innovative social enterprise, called House of Welcome Catering, in a borrowed kitchen in Granville Community Centre. HW Catering provides paid hospitality work experience and training for refugees and people seeking asylum, and moved into a dedicated commercial kitchen at HoW in Granville in 2021.

“It’s an honour to be continuing the work that began more than two decades ago,” says HoW Executive Manager Miriam Pellicano. “It’s critical to have spaces where people can feel welcomed and supported.”