'Gendered lens': Why housing is key to keeping women safe

As the Prime Minister pledges almost $1 billion to support victim survivors fleeing violent homes, experts warn the task ahead is complex but urgent - and that affordable housing must be central to keeping women and children safe.

"It is unacceptable that women and children need to choose between being unsafe in their home through domestic violence and being homeless," National Housing Supply and Affordability Council Chair Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz said in an interview with The Canberra Times.

"We need to provide a solution that gives a secure place for women to go in crisis immediately, where it is secure and safe."

Official data shows that family and domestic violence is the top reason for women and children becoming homeless.

On Friday, the NHSAC will publish its inaugural State of the Housing System 2024 report, forecasting that the federal government will fall 250,000 dwellings short of its five-year target to build 1.2 million well located homes.

"The problem is fundamentally one of supply," Ms Lloyd-Hurwitz said. "We're talking about homes here and people's lives."

YWCA Australia General Manager national service delivery Helen Waters Silva, who is also on the council, said a "gendered lens" was needed to ensure housing policy responds to the needs of women fleeing violence.

"We need a housing system that has viable options for women and kids escaping DV; housing that is affordable and housing that is safe is what's required," she said.

Ms Lloyd-Hurwitz said the government's "ambitious targets" were necessary to address the housing affordability crisis. When it came to supporting women fleeing violence, she said, more transitional, affordable and social housing was needed.

"We have under invested in social housing in Australia for many, many years," Ms Lloyd-Hurwitz said.

Housing Minister Julie Collins will say when she launches the State of the Housing System 2024 report in Sydney that getting the target 1.2 million homes built is "a challenge we are up for".

"A safe and secure place to call home is the foundation for a better life," she is expected to say in the speech.

The government has allocated $100 million for emergency and transitional accommodation and, of the more than 30,000 new homes to be built through the Housing Australia Future Fund, 4000 are earmarked for women and children fleeing violence and older women at risk of homelessness.