{"id":488096,"date":"2026-01-02T22:54:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T22:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/488096\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T22:54:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T22:54:16","slug":"housing-program-for-pregnant-homeless-women-faces-high-demand-as-expert-calls-for-accurate-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/488096\/","title":{"rendered":"Housing program for pregnant homeless women faces high demand as expert calls for accurate data"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amanda was two-months pregnant and suffering from severe morning sickness when she was taken in by nuns at a Melbourne convent about a decade ago.<\/p>\n

She’d been kicked out of the home she’d been living in, and was facing an uncertain future.<\/p>\n

“You just go into survival mode,” she said.<\/p>\n

“That was the only way that I kept on moving forward.”<\/p>\n

About a week before her baby girl arrived, Amanda was placed in transitional housing.<\/p>\n

“You don’t really realise until later on that you’ve gone through something huge,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Not having a home and getting through everything, it’s quite unbelievable.”<\/p>\n

\"Amanda<\/p>\n

Amanda says she went into “survival mode” when she became homeless while pregnant. (ABC News: Nicole Asher)<\/p>\n

That baby girl is now an active and intelligent nine year old. Together, they’re living a settled and stable life.<\/p>\n

Amanda’s story is far from unique, but there’s no real data on how many women are homeless while pregnant.<\/p>\n

“These aren’t statistics that are regularly taken,” RMIT sociologist Juliet Watson said.<\/p>\n

“What we do know about women \u2026 who are pregnant is that they’re likely to be more highly represented in the homeless population than they are in the general population.<\/p>\n

“But we don’t have clear statistics on it. There’s no routine data.”<\/p>\n

\"Juliet<\/p>\n

Juliet Watson, an RMIT sociologist, says there is no clear data on the number of pregnant women who are homeless. (ABC News: Nicole Asher)<\/p>\n

Dr Watson said that needed to change so governments knew the size of the cohort who needed specialised help.<\/p>\n

“We need accurate data about how many women this is affecting,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Then when we get data we can actually speak to people in government, people who are responsible for policy to actually look at this as a serious issue.”<\/p>\n

Demand for services outstrips availability<\/p>\n

Even though the data is missing on how many women are homeless while pregnant, one thing is certain \u2014 demand for help outsizes the help available.<\/p>\n

“Once they have a baby, they may be priorities for social housing, but it’s really difficult for women to be prioritised until that baby is actually born,” Dr Watson said.<\/p>\n

Every month, women like Amanda are being turned away from a one-of-a-kind, and at capacity, homelessness program specifically targeted at pregnant women.<\/p>\n

The program, called Cornelia, integrates health care provided by the Royal Women’s Hospital, and crisis and ongoing housing services provided through Launch Housing and Housing First respectively.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Cornelia is located at an undisclosed location in Melbourne. (Supplied: Royal Women’s Hospital)<\/p>\n

“We provide up to about 12 months of accommodation and when the time is right, women and their babies move out into long-term secure housing and break that cycle of homelessness,” Launch Housing CEO Sherri Bruinhout said.<\/p>\n

“We have maternal health and women’s health services as well as case-management homelessness services.”<\/p>\n

But space in the program, run from a secret location in a Melbourne suburb, is extremely limited.<\/p>\n

There are just 34 studio apartments, meaning space for 34 women and their babies.<\/p>\n

\"Sherri<\/p>\n

Launch Housing CEO Sherri Bruinhout says the program is in high demand. (ABC News: Nicole Asher)<\/p>\n

“Every month we get at least 25 women ringing us up, desperate for exactly what the Cornelia program is offering,” Ms Bruinhout said.<\/p>\n

“They’re desperate for a safe place to stay where they want to give the best opportunities to their babies.<\/p>\n

“Their aspirations are the same as our aspirations \u2014 we don’t want their kids to continue the journey that they’ve had to live.”<\/p>\n

Victorian government looks at ongoing arrangements for program<\/p>\n

Cornelia stands as an example of what can be achieved when organisations work together, advocates say.<\/p>\n

“There’s nothing else like it in Australia,” Dr Watson told the ABC.<\/p>\n

“There’s just this one service, it’s in Melbourne, it really can only deal with a small percentage of the women that have this need.<\/p>\n

“Before Cornelia was set up, there was nothing.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Cornelia can accomodate 34 women and their babies. (Supplied: Royal Women’s Hospital)<\/p>\n

Dr Watson has done extensive research around homelessness and housing, including looking specifically at the issues pregnant women face while living with housing insecurity.<\/p>\n

She’s also assessed the effectiveness of Cornelia, describing it in an evaluation as “delivering an essential service that is achieving outstanding longer-term results”.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had people say to me it would be great to have Cornelias all over Australia,” Dr Watson said.<\/p>\n

“More integration between health and housing services [is required] so women have all the support they need, rather than their health is getting looked after but the housing’s not being addressed and vice versa.”<\/p>\n

The Victorian government, which provided funding to get Cornelia up and running, is looking at ongoing arrangements for the program, which was initially set up as a pilot, a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amanda was two-months pregnant and suffering from severe morning sickness when she was taken in by nuns at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":488097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,220284,220287,220285,50,220286],"class_list":{"0":"post-488096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-cornelia","10":"tag-juliet-watson","11":"tag-launch-housing","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-royal-womens-hospital"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115827970346021601","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}