Women fleeing domestic violence ‘trapped’ in refuges due to lack of housing, advocates say

Abstract

Women and children fleeing domestic violence in Queensland have spent years “trapped” in refuges and other crisis accommodation due to a chronic shortage of secure long-term housing.

Community organisations that run domestic and family violence refuges say the situation creates a bottleneck in crisis accommodation – leaving vulnerable women with an “impossible choice” of living for extended periods in secondary homelessness or choosing to return to unsafe or violent relationships.