An urgent need for more homes that are safe
May 23, 2025
Tasmanians fleeing domestic and family violence (DFV) are struggling to access safe and affordable housing in the State, Anglicare Tasmania warned today.
The latest quarterly data from the Housing Connect Front Door service showed a 23% increase in the number of people seeking housing support.
Anglicare says Federal and State Governments must act urgently to provide social and affordable housing at the scale required.
“Access to housing can be the difference between safety and danger for victim-survivors,” said economist Mary Bennett, Coordinator of Anglicare’s Social Action and Research Centre. “But right now, many Tasmanians are facing a choice between homelessness or staying with a violent partner.”
Ahead of next week’s State budget, Anglicare today released data from the Housing Connect Front Door for January – March 2025. It is the third report published by Anglicare since it began operating the statewide service in July last year. During the latest quarter the Front Door responded to a total of 13,214 inquiries – up from 10,723 on the previous quarter.
Ms Bennett said one of the most alarming trends this quarter was a 28% increase in DFV as the main reason for people seeking housing support.
“Families escaping DFV need a pathway to safety, from suitable crisis and emergency accommodation, through to medium-term transitional accommodation and then long-term housing security. In Tasmania there is a shortage of housing at every point along this pathway.”
Data from the Front Door showed that during the quarter 50% of clients’ need for crisis accommodation went unmet; 79% of need for medium-term accommodation went unmet and 78% of need for long-term housing was unmet.
The North West Coast is the region where the barriers to addressing DFV remained the highest. “I in 6 people seeking housing support in the North West list DFV as the main reason,” said Ms Bennett. “After Anglicare released the Unsafe and Unhoused report in October last year, the Tasmanian Government announced the Rapid Rehousing program to provide subsidised private rentals to victim-survivors would expand from 50 to 150. This was positive news, but since then the number of Rapid Rehousing properties has actually gone backwards. At latest count there were only 44 properties statewide.
“We also await the release by Homes Tasmania of a framework to guide ‘meanwhile use’ of existing buildings and assets as interim accommodation options,” she said. “This was due to be developed by the end of last year.”
On nearly every measure, access to housing deteriorated in the Jan-Mar quarter. This reflects the findings in Anglicare’s Rental Affordability Snapshot that the private rental market is entirely out of reach to people on low and fixed incomes.
“We have a record number of people seeking support at a time when vacancy rates across all regions are at a record low, and median rents are at a record high,” said Ms Bennett. “Meanwhile, the social housing register has grown to a record 5,069 households waiting for a secure and affordable home. The average wait time for social housing for priority applicants is over one-and-a-half years.”
Anglicare says State and Federal Governments must urgently ramp up their investment in long-term social housing. “If the number of people needing social housing continues to grow at the current rate, Tasmania will need 20,200 social homes by 2027 and 22,900 by 2032, and the number of people on the Housing Register will have risen to at least 7,000,” said Ms Bennett.
Anglicare also recommends the State Government make improvements to reduce the harmful impacts of waiting for social housing, and to refine its reporting and measurement of progress against its Tasmanian Housing Strategy.
