Leesa Smith | Southern Courier | 27 January, 2009

Vulnerable local children will be given the opportunity to live in out-of-home care accommodation, thanks to state government funding received by the Caretakers Cottage in Bondi.

The $3.2 million in funding will create eight out-of-home care placements including four residential care placements and four semi-independent living placements.

Coogee MP Paul Pearce welcomed the announcement. "It is projected that there will be approximately 1,670 children in out-of-home care in the Metro Central region [by June]," he said.

He said people needed to recognise that there were dysfunctional families across every socio-economic group.

"There's a presumption, because we are a relatively high socio-economic area in the Coogee electorate, that we don't have the issues," Mr Pearce said. "The reality is that we do."

Community Services Minister Linda Burney said the department was negotiating with many new and existing non-government organisations to provide the additional services across the state.