Independence and space: new homes a step forward after family violence

Detailed summary

Women with older children were not getting support, service says.

When Carly was 25 weeks pregnant with her twins, she was couch surfing with friends, or living in a motel.

Carly, whose name has been changed, had left the father of her children because of domestic violence but was not eligible for public housing because she had only lived in the ACT for eight weeks.

Her older children, then 5 and 7 years old, could not be enrolled in school because she had no fixed address. She worried the stress would affect her pregnancy.

Eventually, Carly was offered a place at one of the transitional cottages at Karinya House, a support service for women who are pregnant or who have recently given birth.

Karinya House was able to support Carly through the birth of her twins and the post-partum period, but it soon became clear the two-bedroom house was not suitable for a family of five.

The twins began crawling, and the older children could not have their friends over because the location is kept confidential to protect the residents.

Karinya House chief executive Lavinia Tyrrel said there was a cohort of young mothers the support service could not support in their current accommodation.

"If you have older children, it becomes more challenging to keep the security arrangements in place," Ms Tyrrel said.

"We've also got shared living for part of it, so having toddlers and multiple children in a shared living space is really challenging."

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Canberra Times. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.