THE Footscray Senior Citizens Centre club is at risk of folding unless a permanent new home can be found.
The club was forced last September to relocate to Maribyrnong from its Buckley Street, Footscray, home of 35 years to make way for two new railway lines as part of the $5.3 billion Regional Rail Link project.
Declining membership and the difficulty of reaching the temporary centre in Maribyrnong are all putting a question mark on the club’s survival.
President Ellen Fleming (pictured) says morale among members is the lowest she has seen in her time with the group, many of them life-long Footscray residents.
“I have lost members over this. The council has spent a lot of money down at this centre, but to my club members it is not Footscray.”
The council received $5.8 million from the Department of Transport at the time of the compulsory acquisition last year — $4.2 million for the site, $1.6 million to renovate the former Maribyrnong RSL building in Raleigh Road and $40,000 for bus transport to the centre.
The Raleigh Road building was said to be a temporary home “for a period of two to three years” until the council develops a new, permanent home in central Footscray.
Council community well-being director Arden Joseph said the council was in the early stages of finding a site for a new community hub in Footscray that would include senior citizens services.
Mrs Fleming said council staff had been supportive, but the clock was ticking. Her members, in their 70s, 80s and 90s, feel like they’ve been shunted out of sight and forgotten.
“Not one councillor has come in and asked our members how they feel.
“I think this is deplorable. It’s a very unfair situation and they are being treated like little children.
“We have lost about 18 members and if we are not back in Footscray by this time next year I don’t know who will be left.”
