By Jessica Yun.
The fate of NSW women’s refuge homes were the focus of media attention this year after structural changes were announced as part of the state government’s Going Home, Staying Home (GHSH) reforms.
GHSH meant many women-only services had to consider packages that did not allow women-only services to remain as such but to partner with larger, often religious, institutions or choose to become a ‘generic’ (men-inclusive) service.
“The size of the service packages was geared towards large organisations or consortia, further disadvantaging small independent services,” says SOS Women’s Services spokeswoman Roxanne Murray.
According to Save Our Women’s Services, there were around 100 women’s services prior to the tenders. Now there are only 14.
One of the issues is that smaller services are being consolidated into larger, more wealthy charities.
“Women’s refuges, including domestic violence refuges that have operated independently for decades, are now being managed by mainstream providers such as Mission Australia, Wesley Mission and St Vincent de Paul with many well-regarded, long-established, independent women’s services now closed and others losing critical transitional housing,” says Ms Murray.
The end of October signalled a positive turnaround. A strong community campaign led by SOS saw full funding restored to five inner-city women’s services for the next three years: Glebe’s Detour House, Young People’s Refuge in Leichhardt, B. Miles Women’s Foundation in Darlinghurst, Leichhardt’s Stepping Out, and Community Restorative Centre’s women’s program located in Broadway, Chippendale.
The funding restoration is part of a NSW Government initiative to pour $8.6 million over three years to support Specialist Homelessness Services in order to assist the implementation of GHSH reforms.
“As I said back in June, we needed to ensure the inner city had more support and time to adjust so that people did not slip through the cracks, which is why I restored the $8.6 million in funding to the inner city,” Ms Upton said in October.
