Since Hanaa found out she needs to leave her affordable one-bedroom unit by the end of the year she has felt "sick".
"I haven't been able to sleep," she said.
"Where am I going to go on my own?"
Hanaa first came to Australia as a refugee in 2016. Two years before she had fled Iraq after ISIS invaded her village.
Unable to afford a private rental, in 2017 Centrelink suggested she live in a St Vincent's Care Services facility in Eltham.
The previously derelict units had been renovated by St Vincent's to house Syrian and Iraqi refugees after the Abbott Government announced Australia would take an extra 12,000 people fleeing the region in 2015.
At first, Hanaa was uneasy in her new environment – now she loves it here.
"I saw all the Arabs living here, all the facilities [and] all the volunteers helping," she said.
"Now I'm used to being here, I feel safe."
St Vincent's Care Services chief executive Lincoln Hopper said at least 60 refugees were housed in the independent living units, which are located on the same grounds as an aged care facility.
At the end of the initial two-year project Mr Hopper said they "successfully transitioned around two-thirds of the original refugee group into suitable, alternative housing elsewhere in the community".
"The remainder (about 20 people) stayed at our Eltham site because they were aged 55 and over, meeting the zoning requirements of the accommodation," Mr Hopper said.
"Other non-refugee tenants have moved into the housing over the intervening period."
Hanaa is now one of 52 tenants living in the affordable units St Vincent's plan to decommission by the end of 2023.
Buildings becoming 'uninhabitable'
Last year Mr Hopper said a third-party property consultant found the units were deteriorating significantly due to problems including water and termite damage.
Mr Hopper said the consultant found without major repairs or a rebuild the buildings will "gradually become uninhabitable".
Major works were out of reach for the not-for-profit financially, so the organisation made the decision to decommission the units by the end of 2023.
"In doing so, we made a commitment: no-one will be left without finding suitable, long-term housing," Mr Hopper said.
"We have employed a project officer… to personally work with each of the 52 tenants to identify alternative accommodation and help them make a successful transition."
They have also offered residents access to counselling.
The decision to decommission the independent living units does not impact the residential aged care facility in different buildings on the same site.
Mr Hopper said some residents have already moved into the neighbouring aged care facility.
Community prepared to help
Vicki Fitzgerald is president of Welcome to Eltham, a community group which was set up in 2016 to support refugees moving to the Melbourne suburb.
She says the elderly refugees who currently live in the units are very distressed at the prospect of once again being dislocated.
"When you say, 'Well, we're not certain where you're going to be living', it just brings up the all the trauma from before," she said.
"That's pretty difficult to watch."
Ms Fitzgerald is calling on St Vincent's Care Services to release the advice which led to the decision to decommission the buildings, and to work with the community to keep the refugees together, in Eltham.
Although she admits it might be "hard to get housing", Ms Fitzgerald says Welcome to Eltham is "prepared to work really hard" to help find suitable accommodation in the area.
"The refugees have got their own strong community now," Ms Fitzgerald said.
"But Eltham has just welcomed the refugees and become stronger because of it."
St Vincent's Care Services did not say whether they would release the consultant's report.
Uncertainty traumatic
The disruption has come at a particularly difficult time for many of the Syrian refugees living in the Eltham units, including Mouna.
She said her sister's home was destroyed in the recent earthquakes near the border of Syria and Türkiye.
While trying to assist her family overseas, Mouna and her husband are coming to terms with the prospect of finding new accommodation.
"It's like reliving the past. I feel insecure like when I left Syria," she said.
"We want to stay in Eltham."
