The number of women and girls seeking help from homelessness services while experiencing family violence and mental health issues soared by six per cent in just two years, new data has revealed, as Australia\u2019s peak body combatting the scourge heads to Canberra. <\/p>\n
Homelessness Australia will present the shocking new analysis to MPs and senators in a briefing on Thursday, as policymakers discuss the next phase of the nation\u2019s approach to homelessness.<\/p>\n
The peak body found almost 30,000 women and girls sought help in 2024-25 for homelessness while undergoing both family or domestic violence and mental health issues.<\/p>\n
About two in five women \u2013 or about 12,000 people \u2013 were still homeless when their support ended, rising 14 per cent in just two years.<\/p>\n
Among those women, a whopping almost 80 per cent were aged under 45.<\/p>\n
Homelessness Australia CEO Kate Colvin said the findings revealed the \u201ccontemporary face\u201d of Australia\u2019s homelessness crisis \u2013 women the peak body said who were increasingly trapped in a \u201cdoom loop\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe person at the centre of this crisis is not who most people picture,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are young women who have fled a violent home and have nowhere safe to go. Without housing and without ongoing support, there is no way out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Colvin said for too many women, it was a choice between \u201cviolence on the street or violence at home\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cA woman may well calculate that a man offering a place to stay with strings attached is the least worst option,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat is not a choice anyone in this country should have to make, yet we are forcing it on vulnerable women and girls every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Day to day\u2019<\/p>\n
Among the women and girls to seek help is Brina, who said she had been homeless off and on since she was 14-years-old.<\/p>\n
She said she, at times, was offered sex in exchange for a roof over her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in and out of prison and mental health wards,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAfter spending 18 months in prison, I fell pregnant with my son and was placed in a hotel where there was drug use all around me. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was incredibly difficult to find a way out of that environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eventually, Brin was referred to a supportive housing program. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt gave me a safe, secure home and a solid foundation to start rebuilding my life, but just as importantly it gave me ongoing support,\u201d he said,<\/p>\n
\u201cThat might sound like something very simple, but when you\u2019ve spent years struggling and trying to survive on your own, having somebody there to check in on you makes an enormous difference. When you\u2019re surviving hour by hour and day by day, you don\u2019t really have the chance to deal with everything else going on in your life.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince being in the program I\u2019ve been able to stay sober and engage with alcohol and other drug programs. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy son and daughter now have a safe home, and I\u2019m able to give my children something I couldn\u2019t give them before \u2013 a mum who is safe, sober, stable and present.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Woman\u2019s safety issue\u2019<\/p>\n
About \u2154 of people receiving homelessness support while suffering from mental health issues were women, according to the findings. <\/p>\n
Almost half were aged between 25 and 44-years-old.<\/p>\n
Greens Leader Larissa Waters said housing was a \u201cwomen\u2019s safety issue\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cGovernments need to start treating it that way,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen a woman is fleeing violence, an affordable place to live can be the difference between safety or being forced back into a dangerous home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the Greens called for $4bn in funding from the government to address a shortfall in social housing for women escaping violence. <\/p>\n
\u201cWomen cannot leave violence permanently if there is nowhere for them and their children to go. The Greens want to see serious investment in public housing and full funding for the frontline services that are already doing the work on the ground,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCrisis accommodation, housing services, family violence services and mental health support all need to be properly funded and working together. These services are under enormous pressure, and women should never be turned away when they are reaching out for help.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Greens know the government can fund this, and so does Labor. What\u2019s missing is the political will to protect people, not corporate profits.\u201d<\/p>\n
Homelessness Australia has also sought to pressure the government to treat housing, mental health, and family and domestic violence as interconnected problems, in particular for women. <\/p>\n
The next National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement and the next action plan on violence against women are currently being developed by the federal government. <\/p>\n
\u201cWomen with complex needs require housing and ongoing support together,\u2019 Ms Colvin said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe agreement is the opportunity to finally join those two things up.\u201d<\/p>\n
A 2024-25 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report found women and children experiencing family and domestic violence were the largest cohort of people accessing specialist homelessness services, with more than 100,000 seeking help each year.<\/p>\n
However, almost 12,000 women and children seeking short-term accommodation were missing out, with some 60 per cent of victim-survivors unable to secure more stable housing by the time they left crisis accommodation.<\/p>\n
Last year, the Albanese government announced it would spend $100m on new crisis, transitional, and youth housing as part of the $1bn Housing Australia Future Fund.<\/p>\n
The fund, announced in 2023, is intended to deliver 55,000 social and affordable homes by mid-2029, though the program writ large has difficulties and is unlikely to reach its targets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The number of women and girls seeking help from homelessness services while experiencing family violence and mental 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