Homelessness and domestic and family violence: State of response report 2024

Abstract

Homelessness Australia’s Homelessness and domestic and family violence: State of Response Report for International Women’s Day analyses Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data to find 45 per cent of women and girls seeking homelessness assistance do so due to family and domestic violence.

Housing insecurity and homelessness also play a critical role in enabling, or preventing, women achieving safety. Lack of access to safe housing creates an enormous hurdle that prevents many women from escaping violence. In the past year alone, the number of women and children sleeping rough or in a car after receiving homelessness support increased by 23%.

The report notes that lack of access to safe housing prevents many women from escaping violence and pushes women back to violent homes. The last Personal Safety Survey revealed that more than 20,000 women experiencing violence wanted to leave but were unable to because of a lack of money or financial support, and more than 13,000 women said lack of money or having nowhere to go was the reason they returned to violence.