Family violence victims in NSW need more privacy when escaping trauma, say support groups
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There is a call for a new crisis housing model in New South Wales to improve privacy for women and children escaping domestic trauma.
A recent report from the Australian Institute of Health And Welfare said more Australians were seeking help for homelessness because of domestic violence and mental illness.
SOS Women's Services has asked the NSW Government to end the communal refuge model.
Spokeswoman Roxanne McMurray said while communal living could have some benefits, self-contained units were more appropriate.
"It would make much more sense to have self-contained units that really give them the privacy they need to recover from the difficult and traumatic experiences that they've been through and also improve access, particularly for teenage boys and for women and children with disabilities," Ms McMurray said.
Ms McMurray said other states were already moving away from the communal refuge model.
"We know that there are women who avoid going to refuges because they don't want to be living with other people and they don't want to be moving out of their homes or relocating their children, that can have its own challenges and so if you then add another challenge of living with perhaps five other families that could be a substantial barrier.
She said it was something Victoria was moving towards.
"The royal commission in Victoria recommended the ending of communal refuges and the increased privacy and healing that independent units would offer, and other states have done it in the past so we're figuring that it's time for NSW to start moving towards it," she said.
Ms McMurray said there would be costs in remodelling and SOS has recommended a trial at four sites across the state, including Griffith in the Riverina.
"In Griffith, Eurobodalla on the South Coast, the Hunter and the Central Coast, they're all areas where their refuge actually has a large amount of space which is already so large that they could have independent living units on them."
"So we're hoping the government will continue to look at that and we can start working together on the remodelling exercise," she said.
Some charities already working on independent living
A Wagga Wagga based charity has been fundraising throughout 2017 for independent living options for domestic violence victims.
The founder of Liberty From Violence, Jenny Davis, said the Riverina was struggling to cope with victims' needs.
She said the number of beds available for domestic violence victims dropped after the state amalgamated all types of crisis housing.
"The refuges are full," she said.
"The beds become available very rarely and they're quite cramped conditions as well.
"So a woman might present and if she is lucky enough to have accommodation available she might living with two or three children with herself in one room," she said.
Ms Davis said Liberty from Violence aims to offer more options.
"We can rent a two bedroomed unit, we can furnish it from our warehouse and we can make it available free of charge.
"By doing that these women can remake their lives and move on from the situation that they've found themselves in and we can assist in that," said Ms Davis.
The State Government said the number of government funded women's refuges in NSW had increased from 76 to 81 since 2014.
It said on any given night there were about 1,500 beds available across NSW to accommodate women and children in crisis.
Topics: regional, health, state-parliament, womens-health, community-organisations, domestic-violence, law-crime-and-justice, wagga-wagga-2650, nsw, griffith-2680
