Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (18:02): My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Corrections, and the action I am seeking is for the minister to work with the Minister for Housing or work with the department to solve the problem of women in prison who are on parole and cannot get out of prison because they cannot get a home. We know women are our fastest growing cohort of people going to prison. They are also one of the fastest growing cohorts of people experiencing homelessness.
We know women who go to prison are not going there for violent crimes; they are generally going there because they have been victims of violent crimes, they have been victims of family violence or they have been victims of sexual assault. They need housing support, not a jail sentence.
My office received information about a woman at Tarrengower Prison who has been eligible for parole for six months but cannot be paroled, because they cannot find her a home. This is not the state that we all want to live in, and as we know, this is not a unique case and this has been happening for decades.
Certainly I know from talking to the previous corrections commissioner that she said exactly the same thing. They just cannot parole women, because they cannot find them housing, and this is a travesty because a lot of time they cannot go back to the family home, because they were escaping family violence and that is why they are homeless.
I know that the government has announced a whole lot of new housing, but we have a waiting list of 100 000 people and I can tell you that women in prison are way down that list. Women in prison—in fact all people in prison—are way down that list, yet we have to keep them in prison because they have not got a home.
So rather than the $188 million spent to upgrade Dame Phyllis Frost Centre with some extra beds—very nice—how about we get some beds and homes outside the prisons so women can actually find a safe place to live and we can release them from prison, reunite them with their children and get them back onto a path of recovery and back into a place?
So the adjournment matter is for Natalie Hutchins to talk to the Minister for Housing and come back with some form of solution for women who are on parole and seeking release.
Fiona Patten MP
Leader of Reason
Member for Northern Metropolitan Region
Adjournment debate 6/5/21
Answer
Thank you for your interest in supporting women involved with the justice system.
The Victorian Government is committed to reducing women’s reoffending by ensuring that policies, programs and services are gender-responsive and trauma-informed. Support services and programs focused on reducing the number of women in prison have recently been expanded, with almost $15 million over four years allocated from 2019-20, including $2.8 million to improve women’s access to housing. In September 2020, Women’s Housing Ltd. commenced providing additional support at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre to improve access to housing, particularly for women on remand or serving a short sentence. Family engagement workers, a new family therapy service, women’s employment specialists and increased access to legal services have also recently been introduced.
Corrections Victoria provides some dedicated housing pathways for prisoners, including properties for use by prisoners on a transitional basis. Women can also be assisted to access housing through dedicated specialist housing support workers in prisons. In addition, the Baggarrook Program (Aboriginal Women’s Transitional Housing), provides short term transitional housing for up to six Aboriginal women being released from prison who are at risk of homelessness.
Through Court Services Victoria, the department also funds women-only transitional properties for women on bail, case management support and specialist tenancy support for women and their children (beyond the four months of bail support).
The Department of Justice and Community Safety is working with the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing to further assist justice clients to access suitable housing. This includes consideration of how the significant investment for social and affordable housing announced by the Victorian Government can benefit vulnerable justice clients, including women. This investment includes the Building Works Housing Stimulus Program, which included $50 million for justice housing. The Minister for Housing has approved a program of projects to be funded through the Justice Housing stream, with some projects specifically benefiting women. More than $4.6 million will see new self-contained units built at two Annie North Haven sites in the Greater Bendigo area, providing specialised accommodation for women as they transition to long-term housing and back into the community.
In addition, through the recently announced 2021-22 Budget, the Victorian Government has made further key investments to support people at risk of homelessness. This includes $110 million for the Private Rental Assistance Program, which prevents and ends homelessness by rapidly rehousing people in private rentals and $47 million to fund outreach teams across metropolitan and regional areas to get people sleeping rough into stable housing. There is also $9.1 million for an Aboriginal family violence refuge in the Horsham region, providing culturally appropriate support services for survivors of family violence, with the construction of up to six new residential units. Projects funded through the $5.3 billion Big Housing Build are also set to ramp up this year, with fast-start projects already underway across a range of suburbs in metropolitan Melbourne.
The Hon. Natalie Hutchins MP
Minister for Crime Prevention
Minister for Corrections
Minister for Youth Justice
Minister for Victim Support
