Housing & homelessness in the ACT

Women’s homelessness in the ACT remains mostly hidden

Appropriate, affordable and stable housing is essential to the health and wellbeing of ACT women and their families. But for many ACT women housing insecurity and homelessness is an increasing issue.

INFORMATION DEVELOPED FOR ACT WOMEN
Women’s Health Matters has developed the following information resources for ACT women.
Financial resources for older single women in the ACT
Financial Resource for women when leaving domestic violence in the ACT

The Canberra context

Recent ABS census data and our own research shows:

over half of Canberra’s homeless population are women
59% of people accessing ACT homeless services are women
53 percent of Canberrans living in low-income households are women
older single women are the largest growing cohort of homeless people in the ACT.

There are many factors contributing to the rising numbers of ACT women experiencing housing instability and homelessness ranging from lack of affordable and appropriate housing, insufficient public and social housing, inadequate superannuation to divorce and domestic and family violence.

Women are more likely than men to be renting, and because most ACT women earn less income than men, they are impacted by the shortage of affordable and available rental housing in the ACT. This is a particularly so for lower income families, single women, and those reliant on either part-time wages or Centrelink payments.

Women are also more likely to lose home ownership or experience homelessness because of divorce or following the breakdown of a relationship and to be victims of domestic and family violence. Safety threats mean women (and children) experiencing family and domestic violence are forced or make decisions to leave their home, but the lack of available crisis and transitional accommodation in the ACT is also often a leading factor for women returning to abusive relationships and unsafe housing situations.

Older single women are the largest growing cohort of homeless people in the ACT with many finding themselves at risk of homelessness or homeless in their later years. This may result from leaving the workforce with insufficient superannuation or savings, from the death of a spouse, or following a relationship breakdown.

While men are more likely to sleep rough or in boarding houses, women are more likely to couch surf with friends or family, utilise various forms of inadequate shelter such as sleeping in a car, seek assistance through specialist homelessness services, or remain in unsafe relationships to avoid homelessness.

What we are doing about it

We have and will continue to use the voices of local women—their preferences, views and concerns—to influence and advocate for access to secure, appropriate, affordable and adaptable accommodation for women, particularly vulnerable women. This includes seeking increased supply of affordable housing, funding for homelessness services and prevention programs, and increased support for low income renters.

We regularly monitor the results of changes to policy and funding for housing/homelessness crisis services and their impact on women, and work with ACT women and service providers to consider how to capture data and identify evidence of the issues and impacts on women in relation to their housing needs.

Because over half of ACT women experiencing domestic and family violence become homeless in the first year post-crisis, in 2016-17 we worked with others to develop and seek funds for the Assistance Beyond Crisis (ABC) micro finance facility.

In February 2016, we participated in a housing policy consortium with ACT Shelter, the ACT Council of Social Service, and the ACT Youth Coalition, which conducted research projects to inform the ACT Government on issues and options.