Women are more reliant on housing assistance and services because of violence, economic disadvantage and caring responsibilities. Shortcomings, gaps and failings in these systems disproportionately impact on women. For example, women make up 62.2% of the 416,640 single people who remain in housing stress after receipt of Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA).1
Women are significantly more likely than men to lose their housing as a result of violence. Overall, of the 288 000 people assisted by specialist homelessness services in 2016-17, 40% were experiencing domestic and family violence. Ninety-four per cent of people experiencing domestic and family violence and being assisted by specialist homelessness services are women and children.
• According to the 2016 Personal Safety Survey, of women who have previously temporarily separated from previous partners who were violent, 11.2% cited “nowhere else to go” as a reason for returning to the relationship (ABS, 2017). As a result, a lack of affordable housing is linked to women remaining in violent relationships (Wendt, 2015). Women on temporary visas experiencing violence are especially disadvantaged and crisis and long-term housing has been identified as the service most required by this group (National Advocacy Group on Women on Temporary Visas Experiencing Violence, 2018). The confluence of economic inequality and unaffordable housing is seen in the high rates of housing stress among single mothers and the rising ranks of single, older women experiencing homelessness. • Across Australia there are 89,700 single mother-led households living in rental stress (ABSa, 2018).
• From 2006 to 2016 there was a 97% jump in the number of older women in the private rental market (National Older Women’s Housing and Homelessness Working Group, 2018). Between the 2011 and 2016 Census, the numbers of women aged 55+ experiencing homelessness rose by 31% (ABSb, 2018). Data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare indicate a 10.8% annual average increase of women aged 55+ assisted by specialist homelessness services between 2011-12 and 2017-18. For the total specialist homelessness services population, the average annual increase has been 3.4% (AIHW, 2018).