Better Health Network (BHN) will close its clinic at 22-28 Fitzroy Street in St Kilda this week, with clients directed to services in Prahran and South Melbourne. The clinic provides alcohol and drug programs, counselling, housing support, and the Resourcing Health and Education program, which serves the local street-based sex work community.
In an internal announcement seen by The Age, the organisation cited problems securing a suitable lease and structural building changes required by the landlord, described as outside its control. The current lease expires on October 30. The same document warns of a "significant forecasted operating deficit" for the 2025/26 financial year and says the organisation must focus on cost efficiencies.
Five former and current BHN staff criticised the closure and wider management decisions. Former case manager Alana Lewis, who left in May, said moving services would erode trust built over years with communities that have historically experienced stigma and discrimination. "Closing Fitzroy Street isn't simply relocating a service. It's dismantling decades of trust, community connection and accessible support," she said.
A former staff member speaking anonymously called the proposed travel to other clinics a "middle-class view of mobility", noting many vulnerable clients cannot move around the city easily. "If you're in community health, you can't take community out," they said.
The closure follows the permanent shutdown of two BHN clinics in Clarinda and Bentleigh last December. Chief executive Andrea McLeod told The Age at the time that there were no planned redundancies and staff would be redistributed to nearby clinics. A current employee, however, described "near-continuous" restructuring, high turnover of senior leadership and multiple redundancy rounds. An internal document from January details 23 program leaders being made redundant and 17 new leadership positions created.
BHN will continue to lease an administrative office at the Victorian Pride Centre in St Kilda, which is not permitted to provide client-facing services. One former staff member described this as an example of the "corporatisation of community health", with leadership "shooting for dollar outcomes, not client outcomes".
A BHN spokesperson said the organisation remained committed to providing client-facing services in St Kilda and was in the final stages of negotiating a lease for a new clinic in the suburb, though no timeframe was given. In the interim, clients would be supported with the relocation to Prahran and South Melbourne and with access to partner organisations. The spokesperson said the Pride Centre site remained "an important base for a range of frontline teams", including those who coordinate support by phone, and recognised that organisational change affecting employment is challenging.