NT homeless services turning away a dozen people a day

NORTHERN Territory homeless services are turning away 11 people a day on average, the greatest proportion of whom are women fleeing family violence

NORTHERN Territory homeless services are turning away 11 people a day on average, the greatest proportion of whom are women fleeing family violence.

According to data released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 75 per cent of those people were women and girls.

Family violence was the most common reason for people to seek help. About 39 per cent of people said they were homeless because of violence in the home. Susan Crane from Darwin women’s refuge Dawn House said services were stretched to capacity.

Dawn House has six rooms to house women and their children who are in immediate danger.

“There are times, especially in the dry season when there are tourists in town that we can’t find anywhere for people to stay — we can’t find any hotels and all the refuges and hostels are full. In those cases, there’s nothing we can do about it except try to develop a safety plan so they have some sense of safety,” she said.

Ms Crane said Darwin needed a service to help women and their kids who had faced violence in the past.

“There are lots of women we have to turn away because they don’t fit our criteria. There’s a really big group of women who aren’t in immediate danger but don’t have anywhere to go.

“There’s no specialised service for them and it’s been like that for years and years.”

A spokeswoman for Housing Minister Gerry McCarthy said the Government was working towards developing a new homelessness strategy.