Georgia* is a victim-survivor of family violence. The pregnant single mother is doing everything she can to make a good life for family.
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But getting back on her feet has been near impossible, with a housing crisis and a meagre income stacked against her.
Georgia and her young daughter, Harper*, have been in and out of emergency accommodation for close to a year and a half. Harper has not known another home.
On the social housing list since January 2021, Georgia has applied for countless rental properties, but nine times out of 10 she has been unable to secure an inspection, with real estate agents sorting applications before inviting people to attend.
Now Georgia is once again nearing the end of the stay at the shelter.
"I've only got a few days left where I am, and I don't know where to go," she said.
"There needs to be more housing. There needs to be more support."
Georgia is far from alone in her experience, with experts listing housing, economic safety and security as paramount to victim-survivors leaving violent relationships. With one woman killed nearly every week in Australia by a current or former partner, advocates have voiced the issue as a top election priority.
Georgia's situation is so dire, she is grappling with an impossible choice.
"Never in a million years did I ever picture myself being in the situation I am now. Never did I ever think I would not be able to provide a home for my daughter, nor did I ever think I would be considering adoption for my unborn child because I cannot provide a home for her and often think someone else could provide a better life for her," she said.
"I feel like it's my own fault. I feel like I'm still being punished. I feel like I don't have a voice."
Georgia wondered whether she would have been better off staying in the relationship, even though the violence was so severe she thought she might be killed.
"Sometimes I wish I had just stayed in the relationship I was in, then maybe I'd never be in the position I'm in now."
"I was beaten while I was pregnant.
"I've had broken fingers, broken toes, a broken nose, all while I was pregnant.
"I was spat on. I was knocked out multiple times. I didn't know if I was going to wake up.
"You shouldn't feel like not knowing if you're going to survive each day is better than the situation that you're living in now because you have no home, you can't survive for your family."
Although for now, contact with her former partner has ceased, the violence left a devastating legacy of poverty in its wake. The cycle has been tremendously difficult to break.
Without a home, a safe place, Georgia felt unable to work through the trauma of a violent relationship.
"You go through all that trauma and there's nothing."
Despite a strong rental and employment history, her applications have been overlooked time and time again.
Georgia said there was a stigma attached to family violence, with landlords reluctant to tenant victim-survivors.
"Everybody should be able to have a home, no matter what circumstance."
Living off Centrelink for the first time since adulthood and without financial assistance from Harper's father, she has been scraping by each week.
The budget has left no room for anything other than necessities, with expenses such as Harper's swimming lessons saved up for over time.
Like any loving parent, all Georgia wants is to provide a better life for her children.
"My daughter didn't have a ... birthday. I was unable to get her the cubby house I always envisioned her to have when she turned one, have the edible garden we were going to build together or have her own yard to run around in."
Engender Equality chief executive Alina Thomas said victim-survivors needed to have options available to them when they left violent relationships.
"That needs to look like secure housing in the area that the victim-survivor wants to be living in with their children, if there's children involved," she said.
"Then there's the process of re-establishing your life, or recovery ... We know very well that the experience of family violence is extremely similar, it's parallel to the experience of people returning from a warzone."
"We need to be able to put mechanisms in place for victim-survivors to be able to recover at their own pace, which means economic security for them during that time and services that can support them during that time."
Women's Legal Service Tasmania chief executive Yvette Cehtel said women often did not financially recover from leaving a relationship. With women typically paid less and assuming most of the childcare responsibilities, Ms Cehtel wanted the government to apply a gendered lens to their policies.
Ms Cehtel said helping women out of violent relationships required a myriad of support, including culturally safe legal and counselling services, and housing.
"We've got to have wraparound support, because it's really hard to leave when you've been worn down for years," she said.
"It's really hard for people leaving an abusive situation with a lack of affordable housing, whether it's in the private rental market, or whether it's trying to secure government supportive housing. We also know that all the shelters are currently at capacity."
"It's really hard for people to have somewhere to actually go."
Ms Cehtel said she wanted to see the government provide subsidised childcare placements and tuition for victim-survivors entering the education system, to help ease financial pressures.
She also wanted greater accountability, calling for an independent commission to monitor how both state and Commonwealth governments tracked against the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032, and its current edition, National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022.
In the latest budget, the Commonwealth government committed an additional $1.3 billion in funding to prevention, intervention, response to family, domestic and sexual violence and to support victim-survivors through their recovery.
It also put forward $100 million to trauma-informed counselling for victim-survivors and children affected by family violence, as well as for behaviour change services for those who had committed, or were at risk of committing, gendered violence.
Ms Cehtel said the measures were encouraging, but did not go far enough in addressing structural changes.
"There needs to be structural change to things like childcare, the pay gap, superannuation, paid parental leave, and workplace cultures and that's only going to happen if there is significant financial investment in those areas so that we, as women, can have the same opportunities as men," she said.
Ms Thomas said raising the rate of welfare benefits, a demand unmet in the budget, was vital for women escaping family violence.
"Women's economic security and economic resources are deeply linked to the ability to negotiate safety or escape an unsafe relationship," she said.
"Whether that's being able to afford to leave, being able to find accommodation, even to the point of being able to pay for petrol ... resources are extremely important for women escaping violence and therefore their income is inextricably linked to their ability to leave or negotiate safety."
For now, Georgia is waiting anxiously.
"I pray for the day I get a call to say we can get a home."
*Names have been changed.
- Lifeline 13 11 14
- 1800 RESPECT
- Safe at Home Family Violence Response and Referral Line 1800 633 937
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