Women and children escaping family violence are being “ping-ponged” between services, as support sectors try to manage inadequate resources and critical underfunding.
In Victoria, family violence is the biggest driver of homelessness.
In 2022/23, more than half of all women, young people and children who visited a specialist homelessness service reported they were experiencing family violence.
Yet a report by Council to Homeless Persons and Safe and Equal found about one in five victim-survivors receives two referrals to homelessness or family violence services, but ultimately ends up with no crisis accommodation.
Chronic underinvestment in social housing is being blamed for increasingly long waitlists with women, young people and children who have family violence prioritisation waiting 19 months for accommodation.
“What homelessness looks like in Victoria today is a woman aged between 25 and 39 with a child under the age of 11 with her,” Council to Homeless Persons chief executive Deborah Di Natale told AAP.
“Imagine fleeing violence with your children, knocking on two different doors, and still sleeping in your car that night.”
Ms Di Natale said a staggering 20 per cent of women fleeing violence experienced a “revolving door” of referrals to various services but ultimately were not able to access accommodation.
“Often because the crisis and emergency accommodation isn’t there, services end up referring people to hotels and motels which aren’t set up to respond to family violence,” she said.
But women were opting to sleep in their cars or return to their violent partners rather than stay in motels and caravan parks.
“People with lived experience say staying in motels is often scarier than staying in a violent household … they worry they are not safe from the person using violence,” Ms Di Natale said.
“Being crammed in a hotel with kids after fleeing your home without any wraparound supports like counselling is isolating.”
The report makes 10 key recommendations to the Victorian government to enable immediate and long-term change.
These include building 7990 new and additional social homes every year for 10 years and funding services that provide immediate and appropriate responses to people experiencing family violence and homelessness.
It also recommends the state government invest in perpetrator interventions and advocate for all social payments to be brought above the Henderson poverty line of $612.18 per week, per single person.
“Women and children are disproportionately affected by homelessness brought on by threats to their physical and psychological safety,” Ms Di Natale said.
“We must improve our systems to protect them.”
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