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Do you have an idea for a project that will end or prevent homelessness, especially where women are concerned? A project that uses evidence-based approaches to ending homelessness? We want to hear from you! More details here

Recently, on ABC’s Life Matters program, Debbie Georgopolous, CEO of Women’s Housing Company and Dr Debbie Faulkner, researcher from UniSA spoke about older people facing insecure housing as they age. Callers speak about their difficult and distressing experiences of insecure housing and homelessness.

Solutions include the expansion of the Home at Last service by HAAG in Victoria. This service is one of the few specialist services that focus on the needs of older people facing homelessness. Home at Last is a successful service providing this invaluable support to older people in Victoria.

Social housing levels in Australia has dropped from 7% of all households to 4%. An urgent injection of social and affordable housing is needed now.

Listen here.

On 21 July 2021, a couple in Melbourne were jailed for intentionally keeping a slave. The woman and man were jailed for 8 years and 6 years respectively. The charges carry a maximum of 25 years in prison. The couple controlled every aspect of the survivor’s life, including preventing her from leaving the house, controlling her communication with family, denying her healthcare and proper payment. She was paid the equivalent of $3.39 a day.

This case challenges the perception of slavery in our country and illustrate that it can and does happen here.

This is the first time that a couple has been prosecuted and jailed for offences relating to domestic servitude in Australia.

Read more about the case here.

Find out how the Mercy Foundation has helped solve homelessness and address disadvantage across Australia. Read about the six new initiatives that have been funded to help end homelessness for women and disadvantaged people. Thank you for your support!

Click here to read the e-news.

A new report Nowhere to Go from Equity Economics estimates that 7,690 women have returned to a current violent partner due to a lack of affordable housing options and that 9,120 women and children face homelessness each year after leaving a violent partner.

According to the report, if the  Commonwealth Government invested in 16,800 additional social housing units the $7.6 billion cost would be dwarfed by immediate economic benefits of $15.3 billion and the creation of 47,000 new jobs.

A substantial saving of $122.5 million due to women not returning to a violent partner and $257 million due to women not experiencing homelessness after leaving their homes due to family and domestic violence would be made in a year.

According to Kate Colvin from Everybody’s Home:

“More than 9,000 women and children face homelessness each year after leaving a violent partner. As this report highlights, many simply have nowhere to go. Victims and survivors of domestic and family violence are often criticised for returning to their abusive partners but an overwhelming majority have to choose between that and homelessness.

This report demonstrates an urgent need for an additional 16,800 social housing units to ensure women and children have somewhere to go when they are forced to leave their homes due to domestic and family violence. Stable housing is critical to their safety and wellbeing.

Ideally, women would stay in their homes and perpetrators would be removed during instances of family violence. The harsh reality is that women need to leave to find safety.

By building more social housing, the Federal Government can inject billions of dollars into our economy, create tens of thousands of jobs and prove it is serious about helping victims of domestic and family violence.”

Everybody’s Home has a petition calling on the Prime Minister to build more homes for domestic violence survivors. Sign the petition here.

The Mercy Youth Awards are now open! Secondary students are asked to think about what everyday things they do to live life to the full – what actions do they take to to develop and maintain good mental health?

Great prizes to be won! Enter here.

Families and individuals living on a low income have never faced a rental market as unaffordable as it is today.

The latest Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare shows that of 74,266homes available for rent across Australia,

• None were affordable for a person on Youth Allowance
• 3 were affordable for a person on the JobSeeker payment
• 0.5% were affordable for a retiree on the Age Pension
• 0.3% were affordable for a single parent on the Parenting Payment

Housing affordability in regional areas has also plummeted, as people moved from the city to country, taking advantage of flexible working arrangements.

While some are celebrating booming property prices, thousands more are facing desperation and hardship, unable to find a home that they can afford.

A structural overhaul of our housing market is urgent. State and Federal governments must work together to ensure all of us, especially people facing disadvantage, have a safe and affordable home.

Read the report here.

 

 

 

Anti -Slavery Australia recently ran a pop-up store “HumanMart” on Oxford Street in busy Sydney, with confronting products on their shelves – people. 

It’s estimated that up to 15,000 people are forced to live in slave-like conditions in Australia. People forced to work in factories, homes, building sites, restaurants and more. Women forced to marry against their will.

On the shelves at HumanMart were products with harrowing stories of people who had experienced modern slavery in Australia. Read about their stories here. 

Find out more about HumanMart here.

What can we do to address modern slavery in Australia?

 

Ending and preventing homelessness for older women was the focus of the 2021 Grants to End Homelessness program. Congratulations to the following organisations that were awarded a Grant to End Homelessness:

1. National Homeless Collective Ltd: Sisters in Safe Housing project will provide repayable loans for bond and rent in advance to older women (45 years and over) and women experiencing chronic homelessness, to help vulnerable women across metropolitan Melbourne secure housing and avoid or escape homelessness.
2. CatholicCare Wilcannia Forbes: The ‘My time’ project will be delivered in the Forbes Parkes region and will target women 50 years and older who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.  A support worker will exclusively work with older women, offering a tailored wraparound service, supporting her in addressing her most urgent needs, including housing.
3. Zonta International and QShelter: This project will deliver innovative financial products to enable women over 45 years to overcome barriers that prevent them from accessing an affordable, appropriate home. Innovative housing options are urgently needed to provide more homes for women facing homelessness in their retirement years.
4. Baptcare Camberwell: This project will provide housing and support for  women seeking asylum, over 55 years, at risk of homelessness. They will be assisted to gain employment and the skills needed to transition to independence.
5. Women’s Housing Company: This exciting new initiative will help solve homelessness for women with high and complex needs and prevent them from falling into homelessness in the future.
6. Cana Communities: Cana’s Life Transformation Program provides mentorship, counselling, vocational training, workplace readiness programs, education and where possible paid employment to assist marginalised men and women who are at risk of homelessness. Grant funding will assist in providing vocational training such as horticulture courses,  food safety courses, point of sale training, forklift licence and traffic management. Securing long term accommodation for clients experiencing or at risk of homelessness is a priority.

A man was convicted for trafficking his wife and two month old baby daughter to India in January, becoming the first Australian to be convicted for an exit-trafficking offence.

Exit trafficking occurs when a person forces someone to leave Australia using coercion, threats or deception. It is an offence under section 271.2 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth).

The man attempted to withdraw his wife’s visa application, preventing her from returning to Australia. The woman managed to return to Australia two months later and alerted authorities to the situation.

He was charged by the AFP and sentenced to 21 months in jail.

More information is available here.