Women's refuges to become homeless shelters

May 30, 2001
Issue 

BY KAMALA EMANUEL

HOBART — In a move that has shocked workers in women's and children's refuges, the Tasmanian Labor government announced plans on May 11 to close one of the four refuges in the south of the state, while the other three will have to concentrate less on services to women and children.

The women's and children's emergency refuges provide services for women and children escaping domestic violence, although some also cater for single women, women with mental illness and homeless women.

The four southern refuges have been told to re-tender for the services they are currently providing. When the refuges re-tender, they will be required to cater for the needs of homeless and single women and have less emphasis on women and children escaping violence.

Refuges are funded through the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program, a federally funded program which is administered by the states. SAAP funding covers emergency and transitional accommodation for homeless youth, men, and families, as well as refuges for women and children.

According to Laurene Kelly of the Hobart Women's Shelter, $500,000 will be cut from the SAAP allocation to southern refuges despite an extra $2 million being allocated to SAAP in the federal budget.

The state government argues that the closure is necessary to allow an increase in funding for services in the north of the state.

Kelly emphasised to Green Left Weekly that service providers in the south recognise the service needs of the north and northwest. Nevertheless, they feel "shocked and betrayed" by the announced service cut at a time when demand for services is increasing.

According to Kelly, the May 11 announcement is part of a process of restructuring of the sector that has been taking place over two years. The government is attempting to convert refuges into services for the homeless.

"They don't understand how different domestic violence services are [from] accommodation services", said Kelly. "They want to call everything homelessness. But domestic violence isn't homelessness, it's criminal activity that drives women and children from their homes."

In addition to treating refuges as "accommodation" services, the government has called for the introduction of measures to prevent "homelessness" by enabling women and children to stay in their homes. It has recently introduced legislation giving police greater powers to remove domestic violence perpetrators (overwhelmingly men) from the home, enabling the rest of the household to remain.

However, this new legislation is unlikely to dramatically reduce the number of women and children seeking refuge from domestic violence. Many women fear that reporting violence to the police will cause violent partners to retaliate. They are also realistic about the lack of protection provided by restraining orders.

Current evidence indicates that demand for domestic violence services is increasing. A Wesley Mission report released in May found that the main increase in demand for crisis assistance in southern Tasmania was from women and children escaping violence, and from youth. Even SAAP's most recent evaluation, in 1998, indicated that the unmet need for women's and children's services in the south was growing.

For 12 months, services had been asking the government for information on the restructuring but had received no indication of the public tendering process and refuge closure prior to May 11.

"When we had the change of [state] government, we thought they'd get away from economic rationalism, treating clients as paying customers, asking 'how much does that one cost?'" Kelly told Green Left, "but the Labor government has let us down greatly with their economic rationalist approach to the sector."

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