A lack of housing and resources leaves 20 per cent of victim-survivors without crisis accommodation: new report

A new report has found years of underinvestment in social housing and a lack of resources in Victoria are fuelling a crisis in emergency accommodation for women and children leaving violence.

The Bridging the Gap between Homelessness and Family Violence Services report released on Tuesday has found a staggering 20 per cent of women and children leaving family violence are “ping-ponged” between family-violence and homelessness services, only to end up with no crisis bed at all.

“Imagine leaving violence with your children, knocking on two different doors, and still sleeping in your car that night,” Council to Homeless Persons CEO Deborah Di Natale said.

The report prepared by Council to Homeless Persons (CHP) and Safe and Equal has found the “bounce-back” effect is devastating for survivors and demoralising for already overstretched frontline workers.

“A lack of social housing driven by years of underinvestment is creating a “bottleneck” in crisis accommodation, and for too many women that can be a matter of life and death,” Deborah Di Natale said.

Domestic and family violence is the single biggest driver of homelessness in Victoria, with the report citing data showing more than half of all women, young people and children who visited a specialist homelessness service reported they were also experiencing family violence in 2022-23.

“A woman is killed every three weeks in a domestic and family violence-related incident in Victoria. Women and children are disproportionately affected by homelessness brought on by this kind of threat to their physical and psychological safety. We must improve our systems to protect them, “Deborah Di Natale said.

The report recommends the Victorian Government commit to building around 8,000 new social homes each year for the next decade, as well as boosting funding for both Specialist Homelessness Services and Family Violence Services to fund more frontline staff.

“Access to safe and affordable housing is absolutely critical – without it, it is nearly impossible for a victim-survivor to safely leave a violent relationship and rebuild their life,” Safe and Equal CEO Tania Farha said.

“Devastatingly, when the systems that are meant to help are stretched to breaking point, the options for victim-survivors become extremely limited,” Tania Farha said.

Other recommendations include doubling the capacity of family violence refuges to reduce a reliance on motels for emergency accommodation, as well as boosting investment in Safe At Home responses which take the burden off the victim-survivor by finding alternative accommodation for the person accused of violence.

Key findings

• 1 in 5 victim-survivors receives two referrals but zero accommodation.
• A lack of social housing driven by years of underinvestment is creating a “bottleneck” effect in crisis accommodation.
• Overloaded staff and rigid eligibility rules exacerbate the problem.
• Motels and caravan parks often feel less safe than returning home.

Key recommendations

• Commit to an annual pipeline of around 8,000 social homes each year for 10 years
• Boost funding to Specialist Homelessness Services and Family Violence services for additional frontline staff.
• Double the capacity of family violence refuges in Victoria to reduce reliance on hotels.
• Increase funding for Safe At Home responses, which allow victim-survivors to remain in their homes, by finding alternative housing for the person accused of violence.
• Lift income supports above the poverty line to increase housing retention.

Fast facts:

• 102,000 people sought assistance from homelessness services in Victoria in 2023/24 (up 4% from the previous year)
• 60,000 of them (58%) were women
• 13,000 were working Victorians (up 23% in 5 years)
• One third of people seeking homelessness assistance in Australia are in Victoria, but we have the lowest proportion of social housing in the country (2.9%)

To arrange interviews, please contact Kathleen Ferguson on 0421 522 080 or Matt Coughlan on 0400 561 480.