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.

Teo, as he likes to be called, has been homeless, living mostly out of a van in that time. He is 45 years old and six feet tall – a large presence with a soft voice.

“It was hard in the van. You can feel the cold of the earth go through you,” he says.

“I was just drifting … I was belligerent. I didn’t want to deal with anyone.

“It’s not where you want to be.”

Teo sits on a couch in a repurposed aged care home in Fitzroy in Melbourne’s inner north. It’s a unique facility, offering wraparound housing and healthcare for six months to those experiencing chronic homelessness. Teo says the place saved his life.

He’d been living in a rental and working as a labourer when a motorcycle accident left him with a compound fracture and unable to work. He couldn’t pay his rent so he bought a van, and that became his home.

Teo has stories to tell, wild stories. Once he was woken up in his van by the former professional surfer Layne Beachley. Another time, he held his breath in the middle of the night, hoping whoever was moving outside his van wouldn’t realise he was inside. He learned not to park around Stonnington or Kew – they were safe spots, but the police would always wake him and ask him to move on.

“It’s not 100% safe sleeping out,” he says. “There’s a lot going down at night, this city doesn’t sleep.”

After two and a half years on the road, pain developed around Teo’s ribs. The hospital found clots in both lungs. That’s when his case worker at St Vincent’s referred him to the Better Health and Housing program (BHHP).

Since it began in 2022, 71 residents have passed through the program. There are 20 beds, 15 for men and five for women and gender-diverse folk. The residents are Melbourne’s most vulnerable – the long-term homeless, with complex health needs.

The majority – 62% – had been sleeping rough. Others came from prison, couch-surfing, unsafe boarding houses or hospitals. Most of the time, this place is their last option.