Mary Crooks:On Tuesday 6 May 2025, the Victorian Women’s Trust proudly presented the fourth instalment of our Trust Women: Lunch Break Sessions, a six-part policy webinar series designed to break down some of the most important gender equality policy challenges facing Australia today.

Australia’s housing crisis is worsening, with rising rents, shortages, and growing homelessness. Women—especially domestic violence survivors, low-income earners, and those over 55—are most at risk. In Housing Security: Navigating the Crisis in 2025, our expert panel discussed the growing housing crisis in Australia, what policy changes are needed to address it, and how we can push for change now.

Speakers: 

• Roberta Buchanan, CEO, Women’s Property Initiatives
• Kate Whittle, General Manager of Advocacy and External Affairs, YWCA
• Moderator: Mary Crooks AO, Executive Director, Victorian Women’s Trust

From February to June 2025, we’ll host expert-led discussions on key issues such as nuclear energy, early childhood education, abortion access, housing, youth mental health, and tech-facilitated abuse. Each session will offer insights from leading thinkers, advocates, and policy experts, helping us better understand the blockers to progress and, more importantly, the pathways forward. Learn more about our upcoming webinars. They’re all free but registration is essential.

Further Resources

• Safe Homes, Equal Futures (Campaign by YWCA)
  
• Housing Australia designs $1 billion program for crisis and transitional accommodation (press release)
• A home for everyone: Singapore’s public housing (explainer)
• Finland’s housing policy has shrunk homelessness rates. Could Australia do the same? (SBS article)
• Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy (overview)
• Women & Homelessness (WPI fact sheet)
• Women & Affordable Housing (WPI fact sheet)

Transcript

Note: Transcript is provided for reference only, and has been edited for clarity. Please confirm accuracy before quoting.

Mary Crooks:
Okay. Welcome, everyone. To this seminar or webinar of ours today on on housing and, women and housing. And, it’s a very great pleasure to acknowledge Country. We here at the Victorian Women’s Trust, we operate on Wurundjeri land. And we pay our respects to First Nations people, past and present. And can I just say how heartwarming it was in, in view of the lost referendum two years ago, how heartwarming it was to to see the prime minister, Albanese on Saturday night, compassionately and respectfully making an Acknowledgment of Country to the nation.

So it’s a great pleasure to host this webinar again today. This is part of our series, the one on housing today. And I’ll have more to say at the end of the session about our next one. But we want we want these occasions to be where, where people can dig, dig more deeply into some major issues of the day. And today, the question of housing. It’s been on a lot of people’s lips before the election at the weekend and will remain so, post election, I’m sure. We we will have a time for Q&A for your questions. Towards the end after we’ve heard from our amazing two female panelists. The session will also be recorded for those people who have missed out or who have to cut short their time today. I don’t think we need to urge you to be respectful in your listening and in your discussion, because that’s a value that we expect to be the dominant one anywhere.

Let me introduce our two panelists. I feel very excited that we’ve got Kate and Roberta today and their pedigrees that they bring to the housing issue are so impressive. I’m actually going to not try and paraphrase. I’m going to read out these fine pedigrees.

So I’m going to start first of all with Roberta Buchanan. And I haven’t got to know or meet Roberta personally yet. She’s been in the job of CEO of Women’s Property Initiatives for at least a year. I feel a little bit guilty that we haven’t met because that is 12 months. And because we’ve enjoyed such a wonderful relationship with Women’s Property Initiatives over the years. But Roberta started her career in social housing as housing officer back in 1996. She must have been very young. In the north east of England. From day one, Roberta knew she’d found an occupation that was more than a job for her. Since then, she’s amassed over 25 years of experience in senior roles within the community sector in Australia and the UK. She’s had an extensive experience in tenancy management, stock transfer, neighbourhood renewal and stakeholder engagement. She’s managed a range of aged care and disability services, where she was instrumental in embedding a person centered service delivery model. Roberta is passionate about quality housing services and working in collaboration with like minded service partners to support residents. She’s spent her career advocating for quality community housing that fosters collaboration and collective leadership, with residents being central to design, monitoring, review and service delivery. And I think you can see from that, why she managed to convince WPI to go with her as the next CEO after the indomitable Jeanette Large.

Kate Whittle works as General Manager of Advocacy and External Affairs with the YWCA, based in Brisbane. Kate is legally qualified. She has a background in advocacy and government relations. She brings a wide range of skills and experience in advocacy to government policy development media. She’s worked with leading decision makers across governments, not for profits, corporates and peak bodies. She’s secured a variety of legislative and regulatory change through her advocacy work. Before joining the YWCA about two and a half years ago, Kate was a senior ministerial advisor in the Queensland Government. She has a deep and practical understanding of the workings of government. She’s focused on achieving outcomes through her strategic advocacy, effective stakeholder engagement and building partnerships for change. She’s appeared before state and federal parliamentary committees and inquiries. And she’s featured in all media platforms such as the Australian, the Australian Financial Review, ABC, Sky News and Bloomberg. Her upbringing in social housing has fostered an unwavering commitment to advocating for safe and secure housing for women and gender diverse people.

For Kate, the personal is political, fuelling her passion to create inclusive and equitable housing solutions for those most in need. So I think having read those out and giving you a bit more of a detailed introduction, you can see how we’ve brought together probably two of the best qualified women today to unpack the issue of housing 2025 and over the next couple of years.

Kate and Roberta, thank you very much for joining us. Going to start with you, Kate. Although obviously, Roberta, we might have trouble keeping you quiet on this question too, Right-o. We’ve just had an incredible election outcome. Incredible in a whole lot of ways, which we won’t go into today. In terms of other factors at work. But housing, housing was the word on everybody’s lips in the campaign, on some lips more than others. There has been movement at the station on housing policy, but there’s still clearly a lot of work to be done. So Kate, let’s start with you. It’s not all over now, Red Rover, because the election result is in place. So give us your reflections on what happened around housing in the election. And in short, what does the future, the immediate future hold?

Kate Whittle:
Look. Thank you, Mary, for kindly inviting me to be a part of this panel. And my wonderful panelist, Roberta, and everyone at Victorian Women’s Trust. I’m joining, from the lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people in Meanjin Queensland today. Astounding result. At the election. And you’re 100% right, Mary. Housing was a centrepiece of this election. We knew that this election would be fought and won on housing and cost of living issues. And we know that that crisis is urgent, and it is widespread. The policy offerings were abundant. However, we tended to find throughout the election there was a strong focus on the question of homeownership as opposed to, the great part of, alleviating the impact of this crisis.

Everybody says supply. And, the key to that is obviously more social and affordable housing supply. So, while labor had its ongoing commitment to the Housing Australia Future Fund, and we had a range of commitments from minor parties on housing supply. Overall, we tended to notice a little bit more of a focus on homeownership or getting younger people into owning their own homes through a range of measures.

Now, that was good politics and maybe bad policy. I think that’s the key takeaway from that kind of suite of initiatives on the table from the parties contesting the election. Good politics, because we knew that young people and young women in particular were a key demographic targeted by the parties this election. And millennials and Gen Zs made up the largest voting bloc for the first time ever. So while there are a lot of policy offerings on the table, we we wanted to see a little bit more in the area of social and affordable housing supply. And also the question of housing for women and housing for gender diverse people specifically, was largely absent from the equation. So, again, all parties addressed in some measure supply, affordability or demand. But most failed to really answer that fundamental question. Who is this policy designed to support and who is it leaving behind? And who is this crisis impacting? And we know from YWCA and all of our research and insights, women and gender diverse people are really struggling at the intersection of this.

But the last point I’ll kind of make before handing to Roberta on this point is we see how interlinked, interweaved Housing Security is with gender equality. The gender pay gap. The superannuation gap. Interrupted work histories. Unpaid caregiving responsibilities. Experiences of domestic and family violence. Housing is not just an economic issue. It’s a gender justice issue. And if we’re not embedding a gender lens into our housing responses at the national and state and local level, we’re not designing policy that will alleviate the impact of this crisis on women and gender diverse people. So, look, in summary, housing was a very huge focus. It needed to be politically. But what we’re advocating for at YWCA and more broadly is a focus on those drivers of housing inequality for the cohorts that we’re so passionate about representing. Thank you. And can I say that I just think your rendition then of the interweaving of housing insecurity with gender inequality is an extraordinarily elegant statement.

Mary Crooks:
Thank you for that. And I think it’s one that we should pull out from the recording and keep front of mind with people. Thank you. Hard act to follow Roberta. In terms of an opening salvo from Kate, but nonetheless, your reflections on the campaign and the weekend and where we go from here.

Roberta Buchanan:
So I think Kate summarised it beautifully so I don’t need to repeat what she’d said. You know, what Kate as articulated well. But my view is, Mary, that it’s not one or the other. That housing policies must be inclusive and they must be across the income distribution. So you can have homeownership and you can have social and affordable housing. So when I see politics try to make those things compete.

I think we’re on a bad, you know, we’re not on the right pathway, and we absolutely must have the, you know, the gender lens across both of those. All of the income distributions. So whether it’s social affordable or whether it’s homeownership. You know, women earn less than men. So what I’m not seeing from first time homebuyers programs or to support people is lesser deposit requirements for women or higher subsidies. So unless we really embed that gender impact assessment across all of our policies we will… let me phrase that more positively. If we do that, we will do better.

Mary Crooks:
Yep. Many thanks. That’s great. Roberta, let’s come to you then. You work especially through WPI and in your background before then, with women struggling to find secure, long term accommodation. So just take us through the barriers. That are at work as you see it. You know, barriers that might even be a bit less visible. And how does housing scarcity affect women, especially?

Roberta Buchanan:
So WPI provides long term affordable housing, Mary. So we don’t provide crisis. There’s other amazing organisations that do that. So crisis transitional. We’re not an intake or assessment planning service where women, you know, women in crisis go. But of course, every day and in fact, more often, more frequently than ever, women are contacting us directly because they are in crisis and they’re in desperate need of long term affordable housing. So we really are seeing that day to day, contact. It’s across every age group and it’s across very, very different income types. So, it’s across working women. It’s single parents. It’s older women. It’s consistent with what specialist homelessness services’ data is reporting. So we know that last year in Victoria, and I’m referring to Victoria, over 60% of people who presented at specialist homelessness services were women.

Key drivers that we’re seeing is just the complete scarcity of affordable housing in the private, rented market. So women who traditionally would have been able to afford something are now no longer… their circumstances have not changed. But the market has changed and it’s driving them to now, you know, reach out directly to providers like WPI in need of housing. We know Anglicare Australia released their rental snapshot last week. And I’m going to read this so I don’t get it wrong. But, you know, there was one available, private rental property if you were on job seeker. Three, available if you are on an age pension. And seven available if you were minimum wage. So the private market is failing women.

Housing insecurity has a devastating impact on anyone. And the services system is really now overburdened because there’s a swell of numbers needing help. And the trauma that comes with housing insecurity, and navigating a service system that is overwhelmed and overburdened. What we’re really seeing is that harm has been accumulated for women who are in desperate need of safe and affordable housing. Family violence is a key driver. We know there’s over 3000 women in Victoria on the Victorian Housing Register now. In priority need of housing with family violence being a driver. Age, aging, just becoming older is a key driver for homelessness. There was 3000 women last year approached, older women approached specialist homelessness services with nowhere safe to live.

And really back to what Kate said. So when you couple gender inequality, when you couple that with a private market that’s not catering for the housing… that’s unable to cater for the housing needs of women. And the lack of affordable housing. We are seeing women impacted the most.

Mary Crooks:
Thanks, Roberta. Kate, anything to add?

Kate Whittle:
Oh look I’d just reiterate Roberta’s points there and the statistics are so stark. I mean, you know, the number of women accessing services, the existing demand already on the system, and therefore we look to governments to fund models and organisations on the front lines to reflect that demand and provide funding certainty. And we don’t see those pipelines coming through. And so. Without avoiding the doom and gloom it’s, you know, the result was the result, but we need to keep, you know, our foot on the pedal. Especially from an advocacy perspective to point out, these very stark realities that women are experiencing in the market at present.

Mary Crooks:
And Kate, I’m I’m assuming I mean, Roberta has given us some strong stats from Victoria. I’m assuming it’s safe to extrapolate those kinds of trends now across to other states and territories?

Kate Whittle:
Nationwide. Absolutely. Yep, yep. Yeah there’s I think here where I am up in Queensland there’s over 50,000 people on the social housing register at present.

Mary Crooks:
So it’s actually more, yeah.

Kate Whittle:
Yeah. Domestic and family violence is the number one driver of women and children seeking out specialist homelessness services year on year. Certainly safe to extrapolate those. In a recent census there was a 10% uplift in women experiencing homelessness. So, we’re going backwards. So, yeah, certainly safe to extrapolate those figures from Victoria.

Mary Crooks:
So Kate while we’re with you then. So the YWCA had an election campaign around housing. Tell us a little bit about the five point action plan that underpinned that. And I guess tell us early days, but how you think the YWCA might start to move forward for the rest of 25, post election?

Kate Whittle:
Look, we had an awesome campaign that we ran called Safe Homes Equal Futures. And really the campaign was a call to action for all candidates at the, contesting the federal election. So major parties. But every candidate getting involved too. And it was a five point plan to address Australia’s housing crisis. But we really wanted to focus our attention on what gender responsive solutions look like. So that was kind of at the core, that gender responsive housing and homelessness solutions. So we developed this campaign in consultation with our young women’s council, our digital activist community and a group of lived experience advocates as well. So, it really embeds lived experience, our roadmap and our recommendations. But it also highlights that critical link between gender equality and housing security that we have been talking about today.

Essentially, in short, our five priorities were increased supply. So increase the supply of social and affordable housing. And we made a range of suggestions in order to do that. One of them is, as Roberta alluded to before, apply a gender impact analysis to the National Housing and Homelessness Plan, which has yet to be released. You know, that was promised by the former government. And that’s something that we will continue to be advocating for over the next few years in this term of this new government. A national plan, a ten year plan, for housing and homelessness in this country that has a gender lens set over the top of that. So that was one. And in order to do that, set targets. Targets are a really effective policy mechanism for government. So if you’re saying, okay, under our Housing Australia Future Fund and our National Housing Accord, we want 40,000 social and affordable homes across Australia, which this government has committed to. Then make sure 25% of those are federally funded housing for women. I mean, we make up 50% of the population. We’re not asking for much. I mean, maybe we lowballed that. But set a target. Set a target.

The second one was regional investment, and I think the Anglicare report and a range of other measures have pointed out that regional Australia is kind of getting left behind. Especially around a lot of the early rounds we saw through the Housing Australia Future Fund, which rightly so, was very focused on scale. But it’s cheaper to deliver in urban areas than it is in regional and rural Australia. And so we’re very focused on advocating for a stronger allocation of grants and concessional loans and availability payments and housing, across regional Australia as well.

Number three, wraparound services and the service sector. And that always get left behind. There’s a lot of money on the table right now with this incoming government. A lot of money. 10 billion for the Housing Australia Future Fund. They just announced I think it was 1 billion. And I’m happy to be corrected in the comments for crisis and transitional housing. That’s all really fantastic. And the community housing sector is ready to get on and deliver that housing. But things like, models like crisis and transitional housing, where’s the operational funding to match that where the sector is already on the such demand? We need operational funding and support for those services to match funding for housing. So that was a third point we’re trying to make to government and to candidates as well.

We’re also calling for a National Youth Housing Advisory Council. Now, there were, young people are going to inherit a crisis that they didn’t create. And the current government, well the former government, and now, you know, the incoming government, they have a range. The Minister for youth, Minister Ali, has an incredible group of young people advising her through her youth advisory councils. There’s a youth advisory council on climate change. There’s a youth advisory council on gender based violence. There’s no youth advisory council on housing. And we thought that was a really, that’s low hanging fruit. Get young people in the room that experience these issues to advise the minister on how to solve these challenges. And then of course the rental sector at the moment is unaffordable, completely unaffordable.

And so, the fifth point on our five point plan was to improve rental affordability. In the ways that are open to the federal government. A lot of rental affordability and rights measures are jurisdictionally the states’ responsibilities. But the federal government can play a leadership role in that space and we’re continuing to advocate for that.

Mary Crooks:
Thanks Kate. It’s pretty clear, listening to the five step outline that you pretty much go forward with that as your map. Yes, yes. Yeah. Okay. Roberta, as as indicated in the introduction, you know, you’ve worked extensively overseas as well as here. So are there are some effective and forward looking programs elsewhere beyond Australia that we should be looking to or looking at?

Roberta Buchanan:
Yeah. And look, I have to say, Mary, I’m not the academic in this space. And there’s many more brilliant people that can talk about this than I do. And it’s, but it is fair to say that there is a global housing crisis. That doesn’t mean that’s okay for Australia. But we… there is absolutely multiple issues across multiple countries. And I think we can see similarities of what has not gone right. And that is lack of investment across multiple years from governments for particularly more subsidised housing that the private market cannot cater for. So that’s, you know, the deeply subsidised or the supported housing models that require housing plus operational revenue to support people.

In Victoria, we have… of all the social housing stock we have just 2.8%. So that’s extremely low and that’s despite government activity such as the, you know, the big build that we’ve had here now since post Covid. CHIA Vic, who’s the peak body in Victoria. They have done some great work on what’s needed, and to keep stock for social housing at that 2.8 with projected population we need to build 2,500 properties per year over the next 27 years. And we are nowhere near that. Infrastructure Victoria thinks that that should be at 4.5%. That would mean we have to build 5,710 new homes over the next 27, social homes. And we’re nowhere near that.

So if I look to other countries. Look, I’m going to pick out two in particular. One, and I think the makeup of the country and the size of the country has led to really bold reforms many, many years ago, and that’s Singapore. So if you think of the size of Singapore, for people in Victoria it’s about from here to Geelong. So they were dealing with very short land, you know, very small land supply, growing population. So years ago, they set a remarkable benchmark by establishing the Singapore Housing and Development Board. And 80% of the population is managed by that, is living in housing managed by that board, which is a government board. So they did not… and that was… there was many levers for Singapore to do that. But of course it has set a really high benchmark. And it really means that housing is not a wealth creation vehicle in Singapore. It is for all income types are living in rental accommodation owned by the government.

The other one I want to call out is Finland. And that’s particularly in the case of Housing First policy. So, you know, a lot of when you’re looking at housing and support needs, many people go “we need to fix these support needs before we can get you a house”. Where Finland was very bold and said, “no, we’re leaning into for housing first. You need to be hosed before anything, you know, the other challenges that your experiencing in your life can be progressed”. And they’ve really, really leaned into that. And as a country they’ve made remarkable inroads into their vision of ending homelessness.

And, you know, my view is homelessness will always occur, but it should be short and it should be non recurrent. What’s happening now is homelessness occurs and it stays for a long time. And the impact of that is traumatic. And we’ve allowed that to happen in Australia. So we cannot… we need to diversify supply across social, affordable and supported accommodation. That’s really, really important now, and across the different income distributions. And it needs to be regional and it needs to be metropolitan. It needs to be close to services.

So we need to really look at all policy levers required. And we need government to work. We need bipartisan support. Not just through this elect… you know, we are in an election term now, but three years comes around really quickly. We need it to be consistent and we need it to be long term.

Mary Crooks:
Well said. Thank you, Roberta. Kate, do you want to add to that in any way?

Kate Whittle:
Look, I completely agree. Finland is is just an absolutely stand out model for Housing First. And we often look to that and use that model to advocate to decision makers on those issues. And I think what Singapore has done is a good set of policy reforms that, as Roberta said, housing isn’t a wealth creation vehicle.And so we often say at YWCA “housing is a human right, not an asset class”. And we need to get to that stage in our national conversation.

And I would also just lastly add Canada. We think Canada has done some really brilliant policy work in the housing space. Particularly their gender lens work as well. So, it’s worth checking out their Housing and Homeless Plan or National Housing and Homelessness plan equivalent. And they’re dedicated targets for women and women’s housing included in that plan as well.

Mary Crooks:
So, we’ve had a, you know, a good coverage in this webinar around sort of government policy. The scope for innovation, the scope for commitment, the scope for investment. What what do you think? What you think you could both be doing in your organisations to make sure that the impetus that is needed to really tackle this question? What could you be saying and doing over the next couple of months that makes sure that the second term of the Albanese government starts to really ramp up its interest in its efforts around housing policy? What would be the main things you would want to see messaged and listened to in the next few months even? Roberta, let’s start with you.

Roberta Buchanan:
And look, we are 50% of the population if not a little bit more now actually. So, I think, we all have a vote, Mary. And I think women as a collective force together are quite the force to be reckoned with. So I think it’s about all of us asking for those quotas and targets that Kate said are so critical, and should be expected of governments.

Individually, our streets and neighbourhoods need to change. That’s the reality. If we want to increase housing supply. We will need different the different streets and neighbourhoods. We need to be asking our, you know, it’s not just a federal… I would like to really emphasise this is not just a federal responsibility. Yes, they are one of the biggest players and we need them involved. And we’re really glad that they are involved. But this is three levels of government that need to work closely together. So local government, state government and federal government. And we… there’s certainly been, you know, the housing accord and there’s been talk about how do you set targets for housing supply and how do these three levels of government work together.

But as a woman, as a community, we need to express that they need to. We need to know what’s happening in our local communities. We need to know the level of social housing. Because we are all voters and we are the people, you know, I often say “the problem you walk past is the problem that you’re accepting”. So my call today from people is we can’t accept this. So when we are voting, whether it’s at the, you know, the council level, the state level or the federal level, we need this to work together.

And it’s not just developers’ problem to solve. Yes. The private market. Absolutely. Private sector do have a huge role to play. But it’s really hard and it’s a really tough environment now to get new housing supply to occur. So we need the private sector to work with all levels of government, with the community sector to make things move. And we’re nowhere near our targets, Mary. We’re nowhere near our targets for housing supply. Never mind for targets for housing supply for women.

Mary Crooks:
So that is moving in Roberta to the question of, you know, a call to action. And I’d like to throw this to Kate. Because it seems Roberta, what you’re saying is one of the most significant things that really needs to happen in the next few months and year is for women in a mass to come together around this issue.

Forming alliances and a coalition around these issues. But again, not with a view to being the only ones to carry that kind of activist burden. But you are pointing. I mean, you’ve both articulated very strongly what the need is. So the call to action is, how do women especially advance this agenda? As citizens, as voters, as professionals, as family members. So, Kate, let’s hear your response. And then when we’ve heard from you, I think we’ll open it up to questions.

Kate Whittle:
Brilliant. I would say advocate where you are, but do it strategically. So talk to your local MP. If you’re a voter. We’re all voters compulsorily in Australia. Talk to your local MP. Ask them what they’re doing about gender responsive housing and women’s homelessness. And let them know that housing is deciding your vote. They’re there to represent you.

If you’re in the sector or representing the sector, back you frontline organisations. Back organisations like WPI and YWCA. And all the other incredible organisations out there doing this work. And share their data, share their stories. You know, share their solutions that we put forward for government. We work in this every day. And so we have the solutions. So, Back organisations doing this work.

I’d say if you’re part of a broader movement, which I know a lot of interested parties on the call will be. Centre lived experience, support young women and young gender diverse people to lead this fight and share with them your experiences and your mentorship and all of your knowledge and expertise and advocacy over the years to arrive at all the incredible hard fought and hard won milestones that we’ve achieved as a gender equality movement. Because we know that, you know, solutions by co-design are better.

So I would say, you know, it’s none of us accept that this crisis is inevitable but we can use our voice in the areas where we are and what we’re doing right now to effect change.

Mary Crooks:
Thanks Kate. And it seemed to me that, I’m going to switch to questions now, but it seems to me that you actually just then provided the big clue, which is we have the solutions. So it’s not as though we’re facing a housing crisis, across housing security, investment, economic questions, other, wider questions. That it’s not as the solutions are hard to find. So if we have the solutions and I’m absolutely convinced by both your offerings that yes we do have the solutions. So the big question is the political will and the political pressure that people can bring to bear.

Kate Whittle:
Absolutely.

Mary Crooks:
On a government in its second term and its third term, possibly. So I think that’s really critical for people not to lose hope. The solutions are there. It’s almost… it reminds me of a favourite saying of mine that, you know, ‘Nature’s laws lay hid at night. God made Newton, and then there was light.’ In other words, the solutions are there.

Kate Whittle:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mary Crooks:
But they probably need more exposure. The problem needs to be more exposed, the solutions exposed, and the political will and the political pressure brought to bear. So thank you both. I’ll come back, at the end, but let’s look at some of the questions now. One of the questions is “what we can do in terms of advocacy to push for change?” I think you’ve actually both addressed that in terms of coming together, of lived experience of people given, being given voices, continue your own fine work in your own organisations. Is there anything quickly you would add to advocacy in the push for change? Roberta?

Roberta Buchanan:
I just think women play such a critical role in society, Mary. We are the carers. We have times out of the work force. Sometimes I can be quite hard, and I look at all the advancement that women have made in history, you know, and in history and go have we take an our foot off the ball?

I don’t believe we have, but we are stronger together. We deserve, women deserve to have safe and affordable housing. And, women are… There’s nothing more powerful than a group of women coming together. So you’re probably all here today because you have an absolute interest in this topic, but it’s about taking your conversations, you know, it’s the ripple effect, taking these conversations to people that aren’t aware of it or also don’t know what to do. So I would just say don’t undermine the power of voice.

Mary Crooks:
Don’t underestimate.

Roberta Buchanan:
Yeah, don’t underestimate it. And collectivism. Yep.

Mary Crooks:
Yep. Kate, any quick response?

Kate Whittle:
Look, I think I echo Roberta’s comments, you know, we’re a powerful force. And, you know, certainly one that influenced the outcome that we saw over the weekend. So, yeah, raise your voice and, yeah. It sometimes feels especially in my world as well as a professional advocate, you can pull your hair out at times, you know, you’re down in a wonderful place called Canberra and you’re talking to representatives saying the solutions are here and the need is so great and work with us. And, it’s hard to get runs on the board. But there is momentum, there is change.

And I would also say, you know, a second term government has been reelected. They’re more likely to have the confidence for ambitious reform. We’re in a good time in this political cycle to demand this change.

Mary Crooks:
Thanks Kate. Yes, I think that good momentum is important, you know, as an antidote to feeling gloomy.

There’s a question from Maxine, which I think is a really good question around being pragmatic and practical here, too. “Why can’t governments create more specialised caravan parks?” says Maxine. “I” she says, “I live in a two bedroom cabin. There’s a company that supplies folding two and three bedroom cabins. They’re not very big, but the adequate for one or two people. And the one in our park cost about 40 grand.” So I guess that goes the question of versatility and flexibility and tailored solutions. What’s your response to Maxine’s question, Roberta?

Roberta Buchanan:
I think all options. So, in terms of is it a long term? For some people that may be a housing option of choice for others it may not, Mary. But I think we need speed to market. We have an absolute undersupply. We need speed to market, and we need to be looking at all options. Of course, there won’t be caravan park style places available in every town or community. But if that sounds like a solution that could work for your local community, raise it with your local member.

Mary Crooks:
Right. And Kate, I’m going to throw a question to you. I think we’ve covered it in large part. But what in talking to, in encouraging people to talk to their MPs? What could people focus on that the MPs have not heard already? I mean, if they haven’t heard there’s a housing crisis, there’s something wrong with them as an MP. But you have encouraged people, quite rightly to realise their rights, which is to rock up to their MP and to talk to them about this crisis and what they want done about it.

But what can they be talking to their MPs about to drive home, the issues in the conversation?

Kate Whittle:
Look, it’s a great question. I think you’re right. Everybody knows that this is a challenge. It was a centrepiece in the election. People are experiencing this every day in their lives. We all know somebody that is, you know, renting somewhere unaffordable. And those of us that work in the sector hear harrowing stories every day around inability to access social and affordable housing and, and then there’s flow on impacts from that.

I think the biggest message when we talk about this more broadly as a sector as well is that this is becoming an issue of intergenerational inequality, and our younger people are going to inherit this. And I find that that is the great thread, if you will, that crosses all political boundaries and all political persuasions and all ages and genders is, the fact that our young people will be inheriting a crisis that they didn’t create.

So I would talk to your MPs about that. It’s an emotional kind of challenge. And it’s an intergenerational one. I also think that, yes, people are aware of the housing crisis. But they’re not necessarily aware that specialist organisations or gender responsive solutions can really create quality outcomes.

So we don’t know if we don’t… I often kind of think specialist organisations, particularly women’s organisations who work in this field, we know the drivers and the vulnerabilities that lead to homelessness. So we are the best people to advise on designing those pathways out of homelessness or out of housing insecurity. And so there’s a kind of specialisation to this work that I don’t think governments are aware of. I think that a lot of people kind of go, “right, if everybody can afford a home, well if we can x, y, z”. They’re not looking at the full spectrum of what makes up a healthy housing system altogether. And they’re not working with the specialists.

So I think talking to your MP about the impact this will have on young people, but also talking about the specialisation around gender responsive and women’s housing is… are two kind of key discussion points that I think your MP would be interested in hearing more on.

Mary Crooks:
Thanks Kate. Another good question. And I think in light, Roberta, of you mentioning the Finland experience and the notion of wraparound services. So “can you elaborate a little on the wraparound services that also need funding in addition to new builds?” This questioner says, “I think of the knock on effects of not having a permanent address, accessing health care, kids schooling zones, employment challenges. Where do they sit?” So, good question.

So let’s talk a little bit before we wrap up about what you mean and understand, by wraparound services. And I love the way you said, I think Roberta, you know, get the house first, rather than, wraparound services without a house. In an ideal world, a house, wraparound.

Roberta Buchanan:
Yeah. Yeah, look that’s right. And for many people, that’s all they need is a home, a safe and a stable home. My mum needed that, and when she got that, she was able to raise her four kids. I never called her a single parent. I called her a double parent because she did the two jobs. She was able to raise her kids and her kids, you know, went on and got an education.

So it’s not… this is not rocket science. But for some women, and particularly for people who are stuck in a service system, who are homeless for a long period of time, the trauma that comes from that is, you know, is unimaginable. I can’t imagine it. You know, I see the impact often. And our current service system, most of it works with “Okay, you’ve been housed now, so therefore our supports finish because we’ve done our job.” But I remember, a lived experience advisor telling me, Mary, when she was in that crisis time, she was surviving. When she got a home, that’s when the trauma of what happened to her actually surfaced. And that’s when she needed people the most.

So to be able to navigate, you know, a new future for the better for some people, they need to have support services that are flexible, that are tailored to their individual needs, that are not set by government programs, that we can do this and we can’t go outside of these barriers. We’ve seen, there’s still work to do, but we’ve seen the beauty of the NDIS with individual support packages that’s tailored to the specific needs of the person with a disability that is separated from the housing. So they have the right to choose from the housing and the supports that they need. All of those.

We’ve got the really good basics here in Australia. We’ve got lots to learn from different sectors, and it’s a really important feature of housing because that can not only prevent homelessness reoccurring, for women, but it also can provide the foundations, along with a house, to access the other opportunities that people want in their life. Like job, you know, employment, training. All of the things that actually create good, economic sense.

Mary Crooks:
Okay. Last word for you, Kate, before we start wrapping up.

Kate Whittle:
Look, the wraparound support piece is just so instrumental to this whole equation, and I think housing gets the gong a lot of the time, because it’s tangible and visible and you can feel and touch it. But those supports and the case management and all of those other interlinking factors that support somebody to sustain their tenancy or help with other areas in their life is an absolutely critical component of, again, a healthy housing system.

Mary Crooks:
Yeah. I stepped away from my role last year as Chair of Fitted for Work, where I’ve been Chair for nine years. And, you know, I just remember the particular story of a woman who got her job with Yarra Trams, in the same week that she was facing eviction from her house. Which, again, just reinforces what you’ve done so well today is that housing security, housing supply is not simply an economic, issue around infrastructure and whatever. It goes to these other fundamental dimensions to inequality, access to resources and so on.

Look, I think in wrapping it up, from your point of view today, it seems we’re almost at a bit of a crossroads as a nation and politically. In the sense that, I think the weekend election result affirmed for me, that one of our strengths, despite gloom and doom, one of our strengths in this country is our social democratic model, within a democracy of social democratic institutions and so on.

And I think listening to you that apart from NDIS, apart from Medicare, apart from national employment standards and so on. Housing and security for all Australians and especially for women, needs to be something that tests our ability to innovate, to pull our fingers out, to grapple with the investment challenges and just get on and do it from today onwards.

So let me wrap up, I think, to thank you, Roberta and Kate, you know, for providing the inspiration from your own two respective work areas, but also, I think, to show people listening today and to show women everywhere that there is a place for women in this movement, and good men as champions of this movement, going forward in 2025, and 2026 onwards.

So thank you both for, I think, exemplifying the crisis and the hope and the solutions as well as you have done today. I think one of the things we should do at the Victorian Women’s Trust, once this recorded edited version is available, we should undertake to do our bit at least. Which is to make sure that the webinar recording goes to all relevant politicians, national and state, as essential reading, to regroup on this issue.

So Ally and Rachael will be in touch, as to when the recording of the event is available. I have to remind the listeners that the next webinar is actually on the 27th of May, and that’s on the question of teens and their mental health. Another big issue to test us and grapple with and show our imagination and support and compassion. So all of these sessions, as you know, are free. You just have to register for them.

Can I thank in passing, Ally and Rachael, and other staff for being able to support these webinars coming into fruition. And finally, one more time, Kate and Roberta, thank you for giving us your time and your expertise and strengths to your respective arms, as you go forward on the housing question.

Thank you. And take care, everyone.

Kate Whittle:
Thank you.

Ends