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Melbourne, Australia– “My homelessness is directly related to domestic violence because I will get up and leave,” said Naomi, 47, who asked us to use only her name.
Naomi is an Aboriginal woman who grew up in the heart of Melbourne. She is a talkative person. Her energy and ideas have concealed years of hardship.
Now living in Queensland, the northernmost state of Australia, Naomi described her experience of homelessness and domestic violence in a long phone call.
“Domestic violence is normal to me because I saw it grow up,” she said truthfully.
Growing up with her Aboriginal mother and Irish father, she will experience severe domestic violence, usually triggered by alcohol.
“Mom-don’t get me wrong, I love her with all my heart-but I just don’t understand her growth as a young girl, she is just crazy,” she said sadly.
“Like, she will get drunk [get drunk] And she is absolutely crazy. And she and Dad would only kill people, and then fall into these drunken frenzy. “
Naomi didn’t know it at the time, but her mother was “Stolen generation“—Aboriginal children who were forcibly taken away—and grew up in preaching by non-indigenous nuns.
Indigenous children are often subjected to extreme abuse in such institutions, where conditions are harsh and punishments are severe.
Accompanied by the pain of separation from family members and the dislocation of culture and heritage, the trauma experienced by the “stolen generation” often leads to alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence and homelessness, all of which affect the next generation.
After their parents broke up, Naomi found herself homeless when she was 14 years old and found accommodation in various hotels near Melbourne.
“I have worked in many factories in Richmond. I just found a small job to support myself,” she said. “But I’m not old enough to rent a house, so I have to live in these small hotels and surf on the sofa.”
She described the hotel as “always dirty, with messy old people everywhere. I’m still young. It’s a bit scary.”
Domestic violence and housing shortage
Stories like Naomi’s are not uncommon in Australia.
In fact, domestic violence is the main cause of homelessness in the country, so women account for nearly half of all homeless people.
In the recent Women’s Justice Parade in Melbourne, a blank paper was unfolded, listing the names of 889 women and children killed in recent years due to domestic violence.On average, one woman is killed by her partner or ex-partner every week in Australia [Ali MC/Al Jazeera]Statistics show that more than one-third of women over the age of 15 have experienced physical, psychological or sexual violence by their current or former partners.
Because this poses a threat to their safety, women like Naomi are forced to leave their homes, usually with their children.
Although men who have experienced homelessness are more likely to sleep soundly, women who have experienced homelessness are more likely to be accompanied by dependent children. This additional responsibility usually means that they will explore safer alternatives than sleeping on the street, such as living in a friend’s house, subletting a house and boarding apartment, or even in the back seat of a car.
Naomi gave birth to the first of three children at the age of 22, and she found herself in a series of violent relationships. This, coupled with her childhood experience, made her believe that domestic violence is only part of life.
“For me, I just want [the violence] Is the norm. Then, you actually just got used to it,” she said.
She often had to take her children to escape the house in a short time, stay with friends and family, surf on the sofa or return to the hotel’s temporary accommodation.
“I think this is normal, just pack up and leave and go to another place,” she said.
“I did it with two older kids for a long time, and then I thought,’No, it’s actually not good,’ like, it’s not a good thing.”
Women are “invisible” homeless
Experts say that the public’s perception of women and homelessness is inaccurate, because women’s homelessness is often “invisible”.
“Women’s performance on homelessness is completely different,” said Anna Paris, operations manager of the Melbourne-based NGO Sacred Heart Mission, which provides a range of services for the homeless, including meal plans and women’s safety. Room. “They don’t show up like rough sleeps, squats, and so on, and they are unlikely to seek separate accommodation.
“As a result, the public usually thinks that only a small percentage of women are homeless, but we do know that this percentage is much higher — almost 50%. It just looks different, and the way we calculate it looks different. “
Anna said that in addition to domestic violence and trauma, the long-term housing shortage in Victoria, where Melbourne is located, has also had a huge impact.
“Personal carrying them may cause [at a homeless service] On any day but a lot [issues are] Structural,” she said.
“There is a serious lack of affordable housing, especially for single women who are receiving benefits or have no benefits.”
In 2015, the Victorian Government completed the Royal Commission on Domestic Violence and made 227 recommendations.
One of the recommendations is to ensure that women who have suffered domestic violence give priority to seeking social housing. The government aims to honor its statement that more social housing is being built.
Although Anna praised the government’s proactive stance in addressing domestic violence and the resulting homelessness, she said there is more work to be done, and often due to lack of choice, women eventually return to violent families.
“Even if you belong to a priority group, you can wait year after year for housing to appear,” she said.
Homelessness is gendered
Sam Sowerwine is the lead lawyer of the Justice Connect Homeless Response Team.
As a community legal service organization, Justice Connect is committed to solving a wide range of social problems and ensuring that marginalized and disadvantaged groups can access the legal system and legal education.
She said, “The lack of visibility makes it more difficult to quantify women’s homelessness experience. Of course, it is underestimated. There are real safety issues.”
The organization’s Women’s Homelessness Prevention Project aims to ensure that women who have suffered domestic violence can live safely. They achieve this goal by providing a comprehensive service that not only helps women in legal needs, but also connects them with other social services (such as counseling and housing).
Therefore, their team provides lawyers and social workers at the same time to provide what they call “all-round” services.
Sam Sowerwine is the lead lawyer of the Justice Connect Homeless Response Team. She said, “The lack of visibility makes it more difficult to quantify women’s homelessness experience. Of course, it is underestimated. There are real safety issues.” [Ali MC/Al Jazeera]Sam said the lack of social housing and unaffordable private rent means that women cannot find suitable housing.
“Once women fall into a homeless situation, it is difficult for them to obtain safe and suitable housing,” she said. “The continuing impact on them and the children is so huge.”
Many women are still mainly responsible for raising their children after the relationship ends, which has also caused financial pressure, especially in terms of housing affordability and increasing cost of living.
Other financial pressures include financial inequality in the workplace—women are paid less than men—and lack of savings.
Unsurprisingly, mental illnesses often inevitably exacerbate pressures such as economic insecurity, broken relationships, child-raising responsibilities, and domestic violence.
“So they are caught in a real cycle of crisis housing and sofa surfing. [as a result of] Lack of stable housing options,” Sam said.
‘We are mothers, aunts’
For indigenous women such as Naomi, there are even more cases of domestic violence.
On average, indigenous women are at least 35 times more likely to be hospitalized due to domestic violence than non-indigenous women.
However, in the past few years, Naomi has successfully changed her life and recently moved to Queensland to escape the violent past and focus on raising her children in a safe environment.
She also works in the community legal department, where she hopes to change the lives of other indigenous people.
She is passionate about healing the wounds of women who have suffered violence and believes that plans should be provided to give women who have suffered domestic violence the opportunity to tell their stories to the perpetrators in prison.
“[Perpetrators] They are all part of our community, so we can’t lock them and throw away the keys. They will eventually go home-and then? What role do we play as indigenous women in this process? She asked.
“If these men-our men-hear directly from that woman, wouldn’t it be better to hear from the injured person? It’s like-‘This is what you make me feel, this is what happened . You not only hurt us, you hurt our children, you hurt our community.’”
“We are women, mothers, aunts,” she said. “We women are part of the cure.”
This series was supported by the city of Yarra.
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