Of the many calls Anne Pratt, the manager of HOME in Queanbeyan, fields each week, she knows at least one will come from Canberra, seeking help for someone with chronic mental illness and nowhere else to go.

Nine of the 19 residents she houses in the supported accommodation facility are from Canberra and the continuing calls from just over the border have convinced her that the capital needs a HOME of its own.

Mr John Tucker, a mental health carer from Tuggeranong, could not agree more. He is an integral member of a community group, including fellow members of Corpus Christi Parish in South Tuggeranong (not least of them being the Queanbeyan facility’s co-chair and resident Fr Peter Day), that is working to set up HOME-style accommodation in the ACT.

Mr Tucker said preliminary research indicated up to 350 Canberrans with severe mental illness were unable to live independently.

He said discussion was already under way with the Queanbeyan HOME board and with ACT mental health bodies. The next step was to generate community and business support for a Canberra HOME, and possibly two or three more in future, and the hunt was on for a site and a “strong and effective” board to make it all happen.

If the Queanbeyan model was anything to go by, a similar facility in Canberra would “result in improvements in the mental health and wellbeing of residents, provide residents with hope and confidence for the future, and create more opportunities for meaningful employment”.

Queanbeyan’s capital costs of $3.3 million came from the federal and state governments and the corporate sector, and Mr Tucker said the estimated $4.5 million to set up the Canberra version would need to be funded in a similar way.

As with HOME in Queanbeyan, the ongoing running costs of $350,000 to $450,000 a year would come from rent (Queanbeyan collects $195 a week from each of its residents), fundraising and donations.

Mrs Pratt said HOME was more about relational care than clinical care (though that was also managed). This “love and care” helped to break the vicious cycle that often caused people with mental illness to “become their illness”.

The success of the facility depended on long-term accommodation, meaning vacancies for others in need were limited, she said.