The chronically homeless mentally ill have been shown to generate costs of more than $100,000 per person per annum in the use of health and other state and local services.1-3 There is ample data from Australia and elsewhere to show that secure supported housing significantly reduces those costs4,5 and results in better health outcomes.6,7

Habilis intends to develop purpose built small clusters of individual units within a complex that provides physical security, access to treatment, support services and opportunities for optimal recovery.

We aim to create a long term solution to house the homeless mentally ill by aligning the interests of the homeless, all parties involved in their care, and investors. This cooperative model logically relies on goodwill to provide the environment for this to happen.
 
The business plan requires the cooperation of stakeholders to deliver a housing complex that, when sold to an investor, creates sufficient margin to pay lease obligations to the investor and for the maintenance of the complex and basic support services over the term of the lease.

It is our intention that original margin on the sale of the development be managed by the service provider. The structure will need to reflect the needs of the specific project and other housing projects to be undertaken for the homeless mentally ill. Habilis and the service provider would seek to take an option to re-lease or acquire the premises at the end of the original term to continue to provide for existing residents. Clearly the greater the surplus

created over the term, the more likely of this outcome. However in the event the option were not exercised then the investor could sell the asset as a boarding house or at a cost could reconfigure the asset into a strata of a lesser number of units and sell them individually.

Property investors are attracted to investments underwritten by a guaranteed lease as well as the depreciation allowance.