We ground our advocacy in evidence and lived experience. Our research highlights the gendered drivers of homelessness, the gaps in current housing systems, and solutions that work.
A severe lack affordable long-term housing options continues to exacerbate the housing crisis
Research & Insights
- Anglicare Australia’s 2023 Victorian Rental Affordability Snapshot revealed that only 3% of properties were affordable to single parents on a minimum wage, and just 0.03% properties were affordable for a single parent of one child receiving parenting payment.
Not only is the problem of women’s homelessness getting worse, but our system responses are failing them and their children and not providing a permanent pathway out of housing instability
Research & Insights
- The 2020 Victorian Government Inquiry into Homelessness found that the majority of Australians who sought assistance from homelessness services did not get the support they need: 76% could not be provided long-term housing (this figure increases to 95% for clients experiencing family and domestic violence), 62% could not be provided transitional accommodation and 32% could not be provided crisis accommodation.
- Over the last decade, the number of women and children sleeping rough or in a car at the end of homelessness support more than doubled, from 1,041 to 2,428. (Homelessness Australia 2024)
- The number of women and children couch surfing at the end of support also more than doubled from 3,465 to 7,214. (Homelessness Australia 2024)
- And, in just the last year, the number of women and children sleeping rough or in a car after receiving homelessness support increased by 23%. (Homelessness Australia 2024)
Certain groups of women are being disproportionally impacted
Research & Insights
- Homelessness is getting worse for women in Australia, particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, older single women, women with a disability and women with experiences of family violence. (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2021)
- Women over the age of 55 are the fastest growing group being pushed into homelessness – the result of a lifetime of gendered inequality, income poverty and caring responsibilities. (Australian Human Rights Commission 2019)
- Incarceration and homelessness are intimately linked. 52% of women coming into prison have been homeless in the year prior to entering prison and over 40% of women incarcerated in Victoria are homeless upon release. (Victorian Ombudsman 2015)
- Additionally, LGBTIQ Victorians are at least twice as likely to have experienced homelessness than the general population. (Andrews, C. and D. Dunt 2021)
In Victoria, domestic and family violence is the single largest driver of homelessness for women
Research & Insights
- 40% of clients seeking support from Specialist Homelessness services in Victoria in 2022-2023 cited family and domestic violence as their top reason for seeking assistance. (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2023)
- An estimated 7,690 women are returning to violent relationships every year and 9,120 women a year are becoming homeless as a direct result of family violence. (Equity Economics 2021)
- Of women who experience domestic violence, more than 50% have children in their care. (Equity Economics 2021)
Homelessness is a growing crisis in Australia, and especially for women and girls.
Research & Insights
Recent Australian data demonstrates this concerning trend, as well as revealing a significant overrepresentation of women seeking support from homelessness services:
- In 2021-22, 60% of those accessing homelessness services were women and girls. Between December 2022 and March 2023, this figure rose to 74%. (The Guardian 2023)
- Women accounted for 82% of the increase of people experiencing homelessness in Australia between 2016 and 2021. (Department of Social Services 2023)