Exhibition puts homelessness in focus

AN exhibition revealing the hidden face of women’s homelessness has arrived in Geelong as new figures show almost 62,000 Victorian women and girls sought help from homelessness services last financial year.

Walk In Her Shoes uses illustrations and photography to tell the stories of three women who experienced homelessness at different stages of life: a young person, a mother and an older woman.

The exhibition explores how family violence, poverty and a shortage of safe, affordable housing can push women into crisis, often with little warning.

Women and girls accounted for 59 per cent of Victorians seeking assistance from homelessness services in 2024-25, according to the latest Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data.

Among them were more than 13,000 girls under 18 and more than 6,800 women aged 55 and over. More than half had experienced family and domestic violence.

Council to Homeless Persons chief executive officer Deborah Di Natale said the exhibition highlighted the human stories behind Victoria’s housing shortage.

“In Geelong, as across Victoria, women and girls make up the majority of people turning to homelessness services,” she said.

“Behind every one of those figures is a person who needed somewhere safe to go and couldn’t find it.”

She said the state’s social housing shortfall remained a major barrier to preventing homelessness.

“Victoria needs close to 80,000 extra social housing properties over the next decade just to reach the national average,” Di Natale said.

“The recent government investment is a vital first step, but the pipeline needs to be far larger and far faster to keep women and children safely housed.”

Walk In Her Shoes is on display at Biyal-a Armstrong Creek Library until 17 June.