A new alliance of not-for-profit
women’s organisations in Victoria is counting on their collective voices to
drive increased funding for their sector to meet the housing needs of women and
children escaping domestic and family violence.
The new Women’s Housing Alliance
(WHA), established in 2019, is made up of representatives from YWCA National
Housing, Women’s Property Initiatives, safe
steps Family Violence Response Centre, Women’s Housing Ltd., McAuley
Community Services for Women, Women’s Health Victoria, Good Samaritan Inn and WISHIN.
Jan Berriman of YWCA National
Housing says, “WHA was created because each organisation in the Alliance was
experiencing an absolute groundswell of demand for increased housing choices
for women. From crisis and refuge housing, to permanent affordable and social
housing, it is clear that there is not enough housing stock to meet demand.”
WHA’s mission is to advocate and
address chronic housing shortage for women and children who are escaping family
violence and experiencing homelessness in growing rates. This shortage has left
many women and children spending far too many nights in unsuitable short-term
crisis accommodation.
“We’ve realised that our
organisations can effect greater change working across the full spectrum of
women’s housing needs by advocating together,” says Felicity Rorke of Good
Samaritan Inn.
WHA has already met with state
government to raise the key issues that they have identified.
- Women
over 55 as the fastest growing cohort experiencing homelessness. There has
been a 10% increase in homelessness among women since 2011. In particular, the
number of older women experiencing homelessness grew 31% from 2011-2016.
- Lack of
long–term affordable housing stock,
so that women and children can’t move on from crisis accommodation. 90% of
all applications to YWCA National Housing in the first six months of 2019 were
unsuccessful due to lack of housing stock.
- Single
women have been priced out of the rental market. A March 2019 Rental
Affordability Snapshot showed that there were two affordable private rental
properties in Australia at that time, for singles on Newstart.
- Dependency
on unsuitable short-term crisis accommodation to house vulnerable women and
children.
“The key thing to note about the
Alliance is that we come with solutions not just problems,” says Jeanette Large
of Women’s Property Initiatives. “We have a long list of recommendations that
can help to address this significant gap between demand and supply.”
Some of these recommendations
require a brave government to stand behind landmark legislation to create real
social change in the long-term – others require a funding increase to address
immediate needs.
“Long-term responses include
investment in innovative housing solutions like co-operative housing models, shared
equity models, community land trusts and many more,” says Jocelyn Bignold of
McAuley Community Services for Women.
“In the medium-term, we need to
see a significant increase in community social housing stock that is owned
and/or managed by women’s housing organisations. This would need to be a
commitment of at least 3000 additional rental properties every year for ten
years in order to make up for the compounded lack of historical investment.”
“Until there is sufficient and
affordable medium and long-term housing in place for women and children
escaping family violence, we will continue to experience bottlenecks in the
crisis accommodation system,” says Rita Butera of safe steps.
For its next key advocacy move, WHA will be making a submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Homelessness in Australia and hope to secure a meeting with the Committee overseeing the Inquiry.
About the
Women’s Housing Alliance
The Women’s Housing Alliance
(WHA), established in 2019, is made up of representatives from YWCA National
Housing, Women’s Property Initiatives, safe
steps Family Violence Response Centre, Women’s Housing Ltd., McAuley
Community Services for Women, Women’s Health Victoria, Good Samaritan Inn and
Wishin.
WHA aims to advocate and address
chronic housing shortage for women and children who are escaping family
violence and experiencing homelessness in growing rates. We have a vision where
there are housing solutions which provide timely, safe, accessible and
affordable homes for women, children and young people in vulnerable
circumstances.
Media
Contact
Amanda Chan, Senior Manager – Communications, YWCA Australia
M: 0433 843 643
E: [email protected]
