In response to the current housing crisis, governments across the country are increasingly implementing strategies to facilitate access to crisis accommodation for people – particularly families with children and women at risk of domestic and family violence – who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness. Increasingly, this crisis accommodation is provided in the form of motels. 

While existing literature demonstrates that for individuals, some motel crisis accommodation may offer more dignity and respect compared to traditional shelter responses, the experiences of families are less understood. This paper therefore seeks to summarise current evidence relating specifically to at-risk families residing in motels. 

Because motels exist in the private market and are not designed as crisis accommodation, the appropriateness of this response to families varies significantly based on the diversity of quality and form that encompasses the stock of motel accommodation. 

This paper contributes to an increasing body of evidence calling for immediate and significant government investments into social and affordable housing for families experiencing or at risk of homelessness. In the absence of a significant increase in the supply of social and affordable housing, families will continue to rely on the suboptimal motel model as an ongoing and harmful feature of family life.