Origami houses for Homeless Week

Published on 24 July 2025

Moorabool Shire Council staff, their children and staff from Child and Family Services Ballarat (CAFS) have committed to folding 387 paper houses, to represent the number of people in Moorabool who accessed homelessness support services in 2022.  

The origami houses will be displayed at Lerderderg Library in Bacchus Marsh.

The initiative is in preparation for Homelessness Week (4-10 August 2025), during which Victoria’s leading community organisations are coming together to raise awareness about the urgent need for more social and public housing in Victoria. 

The last census data showed that, on any given night, at least 30,000 Victorians are without a home (including 6,800 children). They’re living in their cars, staying somewhere temporary like a tent or a friend’s couch, in a shelter or refuge, or have nowhere to go at all. The top three causes of homelessness are family violence, financial difficulties, and the housing crisis.  

“The statistics in Victoria are terrible and sadly, we are not immune in Moorabool, with hundreds of people accessing homelessness support,” Mayor Cr Paul Tatchell said.

“Having affordable and secure housing supports better health, education for our children and opportunities to be a part of the local community.” 

Organisations are being asked to contribute to folding 60,000 origami houses, (representing the number of additional social homes needed to meet current need in Victoria), and to display them leading up to and during Homelessness Week to highlight the urgent need for Governments to fix the housing crisis and end homelessness.  

In 2024 a display was held on the steps of Parliament House. This year the focus is on awareness raising in local communities. 

The origami houses will be on display in the library from 5 August 2025.