Women fleeing violence are sleeping in cars, as service providers try to plug the refuge and housing crisis
Women fleeing violence are sleeping in cars, as service providers try to plug the refuge and housing crisis
Domestic violence services in NSW are at 150 per cent capacity, with short-term refuge solutions like car parks being viewed as a response to the immediate crisis.
Fuck me it's depressing. It's not the angle the ABC chose to take the story, but the fact that we're so willing to give over space to cars instead of...y'know...people is part of the problem here. There was a case in Brisbane a couple of years ago where a group wanting to provide affordable community housing (I think it was aimed at older single women IIRC, though not exclusively DV survivors) was literally unable to do so because the law required that they put aside more space for cars than would be able to make the project viable.
It's just one of the many problems with car culture and motornormativity, and one of the many factors pushing up housing prices into unaffordability.
Its almost like a capitalist society doesn't provide for the good of its people, and its ultimately up tot the government to provide rather than shirk the responsibility. I feel like we might've heard this lesson before when referring to : the homeless, those with a mental illness, addicts, child abuse victims, the poor. I mean I could go on, but whats the point if we still wont learn the freaking lesson?!