Jill is a single woman with two children, a 5 year old and a 14 year old. She pays $164 rent a week from an income of $382 a week – 43% of her income. However, Jill’s rent is going up and she is unable to afford three or even two bedroom rental accommodation at $164 a week. The only alternative to this situation is to seek accommodation at a refuge or to share with family or friends. Usually these alternatives will be temporary and very often are not tenable. Jill needs help. This is a typical story and the reason the Victorian Women’s Housing Association exists.

Women and Housing: The Facts Home ownership is out of reach for many women. Only 46% of female sole parents own their own home [a home ownership rate of 45.8%] compared to 79% for married couples and 60% for male sole parents. Women are forced into private rental, the least desired and most costly tenure, as public (government) housing only provides 6% of housing stock in Australia. But the supply of low cost rental housing has dramatically declined. There has been a drop of 28% in the decade to 1996 (Yates 1999). At the same time there has been an increase in the number of low-income households that are renting privately from about 20% to 22%. (NSW Taskforce on Affordable Housing 1998). It is estimated that low-income groups pay between 35% and 45% of their income in private rent, but for a single person this can increase to 55%. 86% of female sole parents spend more than 30% of their income on private rental housing, compared to 23-34% of couples and 23.4% of male sole parents. Sole parent families (most of them households headed by women) that depend on Centrelink (government) incomes spend on average 43.2% of their income on private rent (1997/97 ABS). Victorian Women’s Housing Association The Victorian Women’s Housing Association (VWHA) was created in response to the dire need to expand the housing options available to women. This is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, established in 1996 through a project funded by the Community Housing Program of the Office of Housing (Government of Victoria). The VWHA is a public benevolent institution. The goal of the VWHA is to develop innovative mechanisms which will provide a range of housing options for women experiencing significant disadvantage in the housing market. The objectives of VWHA are: - to develop and provide affordable, appropriate and secure housing for women and their children; and - to develop, demonstrate and promote good practices in relation to the delivery of housing services to women. A volunteer Board comprised of women from the government, private, community and academic sectors manages the VWHA. VWHA wants to expand the ways in which we collaborate with individuals and organisations in the private sector to create new affordable housing options for women whilst providing a social or ethical return (a market return discounted by the social outcome). Some ideas we have are: - To offer tax deduction to housing and building organisations for donation of services and materials; and - To work with a builder/developer to reducing the construction costs by the refund of the GST, as VWHA is a public benevolent institution, then selling the new housing and leasing it back to use as affordable rental housing. If you have ideas, resources, property or are just interested in finding out more please contact Beverley Kliger (Chairperson) on 9620 0474.

VWHA has received support and assistance from: - Freehills, Legal Services - Kliger Wood, Real Estate Agents - Real Estate Institute of Victoria Ltd. - YWCA Vic. - Maddock, Lonie & Chisholm, Lawyers - Blake, Dawson & Waldron, Lawyers - Waite Group - Richard Wakelin, Property Consulting

6th floor, 20 Queen Street Melbourne Victoria 3000 Telephone 03 9620 0474 Facsimile 03 9620 0475

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