Paying it forward with Not Business as Usual

Negotiations commenced to purchase a vending machine from its owner for NBaU’s use. Their $2,000 outlay saw a return on investment within four months — “much to the chagrin of its former owner,” admits Anthony.

“Basically, we were paying the original owner of [the machine] to have it,” Tracey adds. “And we thought, ‘Well, now that we have this tenant fund up and running, why don’t we own it?’ That way, we have the profits coming back into our funding and, that way, it's helping us more with what we need within the building.” 

As the saying goes, mo’ money, mo’ problems. With the fundraising efforts of the committee having an impact, the prudential realities kicked in. 

Given that Campbell Street is a resident community of people experiencing intergenerational poverty, as well as chronic mental and physical illness covering a range of disabilities, establishing a committee of management to oversee the use of the money was no small feat.

‘We’d started to get some money in place and it we thought, ‘What are we going to do with this?’, Tracey explains. “The idea came up about setting up a tenants’ account and making it all official. We had to have a chairperson, a secretary and a treasurer for it all to go through for the bank.”

Elected as the group’s inaugural Chair – and still going strong in the role at the time of writing this article – Tracey says that she and her fellow executive members have enjoyed the steep learning curve that’s come with leading their social enterprise. They’re also grateful for the help they’ve received from people like Anthony Fagan along the way. 

“It was completely new to me, and I am still learning to this day,” she confides. “I didn't know really where to start, but luckily enough, Ant [Fagan] was a massive help. We’d do quick, one-on-one briefings ahead of meetings to discuss what we were going to put across in the meetings, and I'll still do that with the current staff now, just so I know where I'm at with everything. The committee, the staff and the tenants work as a team to make sure we’re all on the same page.” 

Fast-forward to 2023, and the work of NBaU has expanded to include further investment in facilities within the Campbell Street complex. With the support of a Hobart Foodbank outlet, they’ve created a resident’s ‘supermarket’. 

“On a Tuesday morning, a staff member and a tenant will go out, visit Foodbank, come back, and then we unpack it all in our meeting rooms to basically make it look as if it's in a supermarket,” Tracey says.

For five dollars, residents can then come in, and “within reason — obviously we might have to limit some things,” adds Tracey, “they can basically pick out what they want. They're pretty much doing a full grocery shop for five dollars, which, you know, you can't go wrong.”

Being able to help stretch people’s pensions that little bit further is a source of great pride for the committee. As Tracey adds, “Our building’s there for people with mental health, or addictions, and for people able to get a decent meal or enough to make up a meal – it helps so much.”

Another successful part of their social enterprise has been the replacement of clothes dryers in the building’s communal laundries. 

When one of the existing coin-operated clothes dryers stopped working, the tenant group toyed with the idea of purchasing a replacement. After doing some maths – like factoring in the benefits of five-year warranty against ongoing maintenance costs – the NBaU brains trust committee projected a return on investment within the first 12 months of purchase. 

“The tenants now own two dryers,” Anthony Fagan says, “and are keenly awaiting the demise of the next one.”

On a slightly more serious note, Tracey sees the work of the NBaU enterprise as helping forge strong bonds among the building’s tenants. “We're one big family here in a sense. We all live in the same building, and it was a matter of trying to get people together – just sit and chat – just knowing that we're here for one another.”

“We look at it as no one will go without,” she continues. “It's little things like cooked meals. Someone can come down if they don't have enough to eat and easily get a cooked meal to put away in their freezer. I think it's a matter of making sure no one actually misses out in the long-term, trying to get people to live a better life.”

In the opinion of Anthony Fagan, just as important is the life skills that NBaU brings to the people involved in the program. 

“Most of the tenants rely on a disability support pension, so before NBaU, employment opportunities were slim,” he says. “But establishing the tenant committee, managing the tenant fund, setting up and maintaining networks with suppliers and tradespeople, learning about logistics, and the retail and admin side of things has provided a great framework for the tenants to gain skills and experience in areas that they’re really interested in.”

“Social enterprise ventures like this one at Campbell Street also offers tenants a chance to find a purpose and a way to define their identity,” he concludes. “It’s a great way to develop strong, supportive communities, and it has the potential to pave the way towards job opportunities that might otherwise be out of reach, too.”