‘It’s like a gift from God’: the program letting Melbourne’s long-term homeless catch their breath

‘I came in here with nothing’ … Kero has been in the Better Health and Housing program for almost six months and is now drug-free and treating his diabetes. Photograph: Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/The Guardian

For Theodore, it’s the little things: watching the AFL on the couch, cooking a green curry, closing the front door of the small community apartment he rents in Melbourne’s inner north, knowing he is safe.

“It’s the first time in three years I’ve lived anywhere,” he says.