This inquiry investigated how housing support for vulnerable families experiencing domestic and family violence (DFV) can be best integrated with other types of support to enhance safety and wellbeing, including for women in different housing tenures, for Indigenous women and the integration of social housing policy with policies to support women affected by DFV.

Key points:

• In general, crisis and emergency responses are reportedly effective in meeting the short-term needs of women and children, especially non-Indigenous women and children in major urban areas. However, this is not universal. Indigenous women and children in remote and regional areas face acute shortages in housing support and culturally safe service.
• Moving from short-term or transitional accommodation into permanent, independent housing is very difficult, and sometimes unachievable, for women and children affected by domestic and family violence (DFV).
• Specialist Homelessness Services (SHSs) and other human services are not able to compensate for the absence of affordable, suitable housing across the housing system: the provision of such housing is not within their remit or control yet it is critical to allowing women and children to flourish in the longer-term.
• Social housing is valued by tenants, and investment to overcome current undersupply could address problems with pathways to permanent housing.