<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/mar/27/unprecedented-domestic-violence-shelters-reach-capacity-amid-queensland-housing-crisis>
"Domestic violence shelters in Queensland say they are struggling to make space
for new arrivals, with the housing crisis forcing women to stay in some refuges
for years.
The added strain on the sector has created a bottleneck , with shelters having
to place some women in hotels or refuges far from their support networks.
Save the Children – which now operates under the name 54 Reasons in Australia –
runs seven refuges across the state and its Queensland director, Mena Waller,
said it was facing incredibly high demand.
“There’s absolutely not enough refuge placements that we can offer women and
children,” Waller said. “So at the moment, our capacity is full and if you do
have a vacancy, it’s usually filled within 24 hours.”
Another south-east Queensland refuge, Women’s House Shelta, is also at
capacity. “Most people would say this is sort of an unprecedented time for
refuges,” said a refuge worker, Julia Dawson.
“We’ve never experienced this level of [being] unable to move women into safe
accommodation. We get calls every day from women who are still not in safe
situations and at risk of violence … but the women who are high risk get
prioritised.”
Tracey Makoni, service delivery manager at DV Connect, said shelters were only
funded to house people for up to 12 weeks – but they were seeing women stay up
to three years due to the housing crisis."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
