ONLY 3% of the tens of thousands of women and children that have fled family and domestic violence and came to homelessness services received long-term housing assistance, according to new analysis, and more help is required from the federal government.
Analysis conducted by Homelessness Australia showed 119,182 people experienced family violence in the 2020 financial year, and 116,180 in FY21.
Of those, 39,408 in FY20 sought long-term housing, but only 1,233 – or 3.1% – were provided with housing. Nothing was provided to more than 30,607, or 77.4%, while less than one in five were referred.
In FY21, the percentage of the 39,680 provided with long-term housing fell to 2.9%. One in five received referrals, while more than 77% again were provided with nothing.
The Commonwealth has committed to 4,000 homes over five years, or 800 per year, to assist women and children fleeing violence. But annual need equates to more than 16,810 homes, according to Homelessness Australia.
New commitments therefore only equate to about 5% of what’s required.
Homelessness Australia chief executive, Kate Colvin, said while the Australian governments’ recognition that housing is key to women’s safety in the national plan to end violence against women and children was important, the scale of ambition had to lift.
“A secure home is absolutely central to the safety of those fleeing family violence. Without a home, women and children must choose between homelessness and violence. This is not a choice anyone should have to make,” she said.
“This is a basic moral proposition. We live in one of the wealthiest societies in the world and we have all the material and financial means we need for women and children to be safe. It’s a matter of priority.
“The Commonwealth has made important strides forward in recognising this problem and committing to take action by delivering additional social housing homes. However, we urgently need to expand the number of properties available to women to achieve safety.”
Family and domestic violence is the biggest cause of homelessness for women and children.
Equity Economics estimates that 9,120 women and children face homelessness each year after leaving a violent partner.
Vicky left her violent partner twice, but chose to return instead of face homelessness with her children. Vicky said she knew it was time to leave.
“The violence was getting worse, and he was saying he would take the kids. When Vicky fled she had two boys aged four and seven, and was pregnant with her third child. She didn’t expect that after years of enduring a violent relationship there was worse to come. The “horror” of homelessness was a nightmare. We went into a communal women’s refuge. There was no clear prospect that we would get housed.
“It was a very, very terrible time [in refuges], and that’s why I would go back home. It was just easier. It felt easier,” she says.
Altogether, a staggering 37,867 people missed out on long-term housing, while some may have secured private rental accommodation, others will have returned to live where their perpetrator, or become homeless.
Vicky went back to her violent husband twice.
“People [are] going back to partners because they can’t achieve another housing outcome. And I mean, years ago, that wasn’t the case. You could always, especially with DV and if children were involved, you could get people housed. But there’s just nothing – the pressure is massive.” said a specialist homeless service worker.
Following the Jobs and Skills Summit, the federal government resolved to allocate $575 million in partnership with other tiers of government and social housing providers, and to attract private capital including from superannuation funds, while the recently unveiled National Housing Accord outlined plans to build one million new homes over five years, including a $350 million spend to build 10,000 affordable homes within the period and the states and territories to contribute a further 10,000. But Arjun Paliwal, founder and head of research of buyer’s agency InvestorKit, doesn’t believe the number “even touches the sides of this issue”.
Social housing stock comprised 7.1% of total housing in Australia in 1991, but this has fallen to 4.2%, some 2.9% below the OECD average. According to AHURI, Australia is estimated to need 36,000 affordable social housing properties each year to cater for total demand. A conservative estimate by Duncan Rouch, a researcher affiliated with the Victorian Greens’ housing and homelessness working group, says there are approximately 119,350 people on multi-year waitlist for social housing.
Women escaping family and domestic violence have three long-term options – buying their own home, considered unrealistic for most, leaving social housing and private rental the only viable options. In private rental market, rents have soared and there is a severe lack of availability of homes.
The Productivity Commission’s review of the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement (NHHA) called for changes to help more low‑income households in the private rental market and reduce the number of people who experience homelessness or need social housing.
“People [are] going back to partners because they can’t achieve another housing outcome. And I mean, years ago, that wasn’t the case. You could always, especially with DV and if children were involved, you could get people housed. But there’s just nothing – the pressure is massive,” a specialist homeless service worker told the Nowhere to Go report released by Equity Economics last year.
Evidence from the aftermath of previous disasters shows that domestic violence rates rise, and COVID raised particular concerns are women and children were isolated with offenders in their homes during lockdowns. An Australian Institute of Criminology survey of more than 15,000 Australians in May 2020 – two months into the pandemic – found a large increase in women experiencing domestic abuse for the first time, as well as an increase in overall rates of abuse.
All states and territories have made commitments to reduce or end domestic family violence.
