Emergency refuge housing is crucial for women and children escaping family violence.
But a shortage of space in emergency refuges is leaving many in the lurch, with nowhere else to go.
“It’s not a controlled way of leaving. Often, it’s an escaping, and it’s a going-into-hiding,” journalist and domestic violence educator Jess Hill told News Breakfast.
“For a long time now, I think refuges have been devalued, as sort of the ambulance waiting at the bottom of the cliff … but the fact is, when women and kids are fleeing, they need to go into a place that is safe.”
Women’s shelters, or refuges, provide safe and secure accommodation for those fleeing domestic and family violence.
They are also staffed to support victim-survivors through the next steps in fleeing an abusive situation and to help get them back on their feet.
And in situations where perpetrators are not arrested, or are arrested but bailed and able to return to the home, refuges are often the only safe option.
However, they are in high demand across the country – and in Victoria alone, Ms Hill says it’s common for every bed in the state to be filled by 9am any given day, often leaving victim-survivors no choice but to enter a motel.
“You’ve fled violence. There’s active trauma. There are questions like ‘can we go back to school? What about that doctor’s appointment next week?'” she said.
“You’re just sitting in that room. There’s no stove. What are you going to do for two weeks, while you wait to be put into refuge somewhere in the state that you’re in?”
Safe Steps is a family violence response centre based in Victoria helping to connect those fleeing domestic violence with secure accommodation and ongoing support.
Their helpline receives approximately 300 calls a day, with 70 per cent of them rated as coming from victim-survivors at serious risk requiring immediate protection.
“We’re talking about a cohort that is at such serious risk they need to go into hiding. They need support.”
The service has developed an alternative model called Sanctuary, which combines crisis response and accommodation with early intervention and prevention as an alternative to motels when those fleeing violence have nowhere else to go.
Women and children can attend for three weeks before going into a longer-term refuge.
“In that Sanctuary model, you have teachers, Centrelink, Legal Aid, financial counsellors, nurses. You have all the wrap-around services to organise just the incredible amount of admin that needs to happen once you flee a violent relationship,” Ms Hill said.
An independent evaluation of the Sanctuary pilot program this year showed 99 per cent of those who attended had safe and sustainable exits without needing to re-engage with Safe Steps services, and all clients reported an increased capacity to navigate support services.
“There’s a sense of hope and optimism that you haven’t made a gigantic mistake,” Ms Hill said.
“What they’ve seen through this eight-month pilot of Sanctuary is that only one person went back to the perpetrator.
“Compare that to 50 per cent of the motel visits making an unsafe exit. And the fact that the Sanctuary model is cheaper than motels.”
The organisation has asked the Victorian state government to commit to ending the use of motels as housing for those fleeing violence and replace that with the funding of a further 70 Sanctuary dwellings, to be rolled out across the state.
“I just want to say to governments, why is it that you’re so willing to bleed money into programs that just expand beyond what their original intention was,” Ms Hill said.
“But so unwilling to make the up-front capital investment to establish systems that would be safer – and less expensive?”
Watch “Not Just a Number”: News Breakfast’s special coverage on gendered violence this week from 6am-9am each weekday on ABC News and ABC iview.