00:01What we're really worried about is that not only are these women coming to homeless support,
00:07so obviously they're already in a really vulnerable situation, but there are such gaps in services
00:12that 12,000 of those women are still homeless when they finish up with support.
00:18Where are the gaps that are meaning that there's still 12,000 that are homeless at the end
00:23of receiving support?
00:24Yeah, so it's a combined gap.
00:27So it's about there not being the housing available, but also not being the link support services.
00:32So when we've got women who are in a really vulnerable situation, fleeing domestic violence,
00:37often having experienced a lot of trauma, and this group that we're talking about already
00:42have a mental health issue, then often women need both housing and support to recover from
00:48that experience and to be able to sustain their tenancy.
00:51And that housing linked with support isn't available, and that's what we're talking to
00:56politicians about today.
00:57So why are we seeing this rise, this jump of 6%?
01:00Is it purely attributable to domestic violence?
01:05Look, we have seen surges in domestic violence, but it's also about the housing crisis.
01:10So, you know, maybe many years ago women would be able to self-resolve an issue if they need
01:16to leave family violence, they might be able to secure a tenancy.
01:20It's really hard in the current rental market to find a home that you can afford if you're
01:24on a low income.
01:25And so that's where women end up coming to homelessness services.
01:29Because there's not the social housing available, that's why women are still homeless at the end
01:33of support, because there's just no housing to put women in.
01:36And then we've also got this issue around the support services people need.
01:42And so sometimes even where a woman in a really vulnerable situation does get into housing,
01:49sometimes that tenancy doesn't succeed because, you know, perhaps, you know, the man that she's
01:56fleeing from finds her, she can't stay in that tenancy.
02:00Or there's other issues with the tenancy where she needs some support to keep that.
02:04What does this analysis tell us about the changing face of homelessness in Australia?
02:09Look, what we're seeing in this data is that the face of homelessness is a quite young woman.
02:16So three in four of these women were under 45.
02:19So we're talking about women in this young period of their life who are fleeing violence
02:25and ending up on the street.
02:26And ending up, you know, when you get onto the street, it's a really dangerous situation.
02:32Women often experience violence while they're on the street.
02:35And then often the only way off the street is a relationship, you know, man might offer accommodation
02:42and sex is kind of part of that arrangement.
02:45So forming a new relationship and then that becomes another situation of family violence.
02:51And so, as the government's developing their second action plan around the plan to end
02:56violence against women and children, we're saying this vulnerable group of women absolutely
03:01need housing and support so that they don't end up in another situation of family violence.
03:07You're currently in Canberra.
03:09You'll be speaking to politicians today, I imagine, around that second action plan to end violence
03:14against women, as well as the next national mental health and suicide prevention agreement.
03:18Where do you start with your conversations?
03:21Look, what we can see is that this is something that has been recommended to government again
03:26and again.
03:27So we see it being recommended through situations where women, you know, we have all of these
03:34deaths of women fleeing family violence or trying to flee and not being safe.
03:38We have recommendations that have come out of the Disability Review, the Productivity Commission
03:46into mental health that all say housing needs to be linked to support.
03:50So we are saying to government, you need to join up housing and mental health care so that
03:57people get the support they need.
03:59Because I think in our community, we see that there's more and more people rough sleeping.
04:04People walk down the street and see vulnerable women sleeping out on the street and think,
04:09why is government not doing what needs to be done?
04:12Why?
04:12No problem.
04:12Because I just noticed this process that might drive lots of people at some point.
04:14So we've got to know for money to withdraw efforts to?
04:15That's not over.
Comments