Violence remains a major cause of homelessness for women and their children

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's report released today evidences  that, although the number of women accessing specialist homelessness services has dropped, domestic and family violence remains a major cause of homelessness for women and their children.

Specialist Homelessness Services 2012-13 presents the following pertinent findings:

•      In 2012–13, 32 per cent of all people receiving assistance from homelessness agencies were escaping domestic or family violence (77,870 clients).

•      The majority of clients of specialist homelessness services who were escaping domestic and family violence were adult females (63 per cent) and children under 10 years of age (19 per cent).

o     Females aged 15 years and over accounted for 67 per cent of this group, and children aged under 14 accounted for an additional 25 per cent.

o     Males aged 15 years and older accounted for 7 per cent of clients in this group.

o     Among children (0–9 and 10–14 years), there were similar numbers of boys and girls.

Sadly, an estimated 244,000 Australians accessed specialist homelessness services in 2012-13 – representing a three per cent increase from the 230,000 Australians that asked for help in 2011-12.

However, perhaps signalling a positive shift in social change, the percentage of women accessing specialist homelessness services dropped from 78 per cent in 2011-12 to 63 per cent in 2012-13.

The 2011-12 report  stated that people experiencing domestic or family violence made up one-third of the those that accessed specialist homelessness services in that period. Of such clients, 78 per cent were female.

While these new statistics potentially show improvement, more work needs to be done to stop violence against women, and not just in the home.

White Ribbon Australia continues to work towards an end to violence against women in all its forms, including physical, sexual, emotional and financial.

The United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women defines violence against women as: Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivations of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life.

This definition also appears within The National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022.

For more information on Australia’s campaign to stop violence against women, visit www.whiteribbon.org.au.