She’s experienced homelessness and housing insecurity on and off since she was 10.
“The longest I’ve ever had a stable home is three years,” she says.
Her father’s abuse was relentless.
“He was very self-destructive and he would bring all of us down – my mum, my sister and me – in whatever way that he could,” says Inez. “Without going into too much detail, there was physical violence.”
For Inez and her family, the abuse wasn’t just physical.
“There were also points when he would use finances against us,” Inez shares. “We were homeless during my childhood because he just refused to pay the mortgage, just to punish my mum. And so the entire family had nowhere to stay and no money to rent anywhere.”
Inez, her sister and their mum – who lives with a physical impairment – were left with nowhere to go.
They stayed with relatives for a year. “Eventually we picked ourselves back up and got a rental property,” says Inez. But the cycle repeated.
The decision to leave
At 20, Inez reached her breaking point.
“I said to my mum when we were out one day, ‘I’ve had enough, I’m not going home.’”
Inez had been paying for rent and food for the family because her dad refused to pay for anything.
“I said to [my mum], ‘I don’t feel safe going back home because he’s getting worse, he’s getting more and more violent,’” says Inez. “So that day, I decided that I was done with that life.”
Inez’s sister and mother also decided they had to leave. Her sister was only 17 and in the middle of her Year 12 studies.
Inez had been preparing for that moment. “I had hidden my birth certificate and other important documents for me, my sister and mum in my car because my dad didn’t have access to my car,” she says. “I hid the documents in the spare tyre in the boot.”
“So exactly two weeks after I turned twenty, I was homeless again.”
Youth Off The Streets: Marley’s* story: When home is where the hurt is
With limited options, Inez, her sister and mother went to see her mother’s doctor. There, they were given the phone number for Link2Home, which arranged a space for them in a women’s shelter.
The first night brought mixed emotions.
“I felt free and relieved, but my sister wasn’t taking it well,” says Inez.
Later, a caseworker supported them to take legal action.
“We had to go to court because my dad didn’t want to allow us to take any of our stuff,” says Inez. “They put an AVO on him for us without us even asking. To have the police put an AVO on him to protect us was such a huge relief.”
They moved from shelter to shelter, moving in with a family member at one point.
“Eventually we couldn’t stay with them anymore, so we were homeless again for about three months,” says Inez.
“Our caseworker was really trying to help us, but the housing department was making it very difficult.”
The system was unforgiving.
“Every three days the refuge would say we had to leave and we’d have to beg them to let us stay,” says Inez.
Because Inez’s mum had just gotten a job, the family were told that they needed to move into a motel because they could afford it.
But Inez knew better. “If we went to a motel, then we’d be stuck there forever because how were we going to save any money to have some independence?”
“We all had to find jobs so that we could afford a rental property, even with Rentstart assistance,” says Inez. “We had to buy everything we needed, from beds to spoons and forks. When we finally got a rental we could afford, it still took us years to replace all the basic things we’d had to leave behind.”
Youth Off The Streets offers a range of homelessness and housing support services for children and young people aged 16–24.
Despite the instability, Inez and her sister tried to rebuild their futures through education.
Inez enrolled in a Bachelor of Theology, majoring in counselling, while her sister started studying to be a teacher.
However, it wasn’t long before the cost of living went up and the family got pushed out of the rental market.
“There was no way on earth I could stay at university because I had to work just so we could eat,” says Inez. “I’m still doing that because my sister is doing her teacher’s prac and I don’t want her to have to stop – I don’t want her to worry too much.”
Navigating the system alone
Inez deals with the search for housing and paperwork all on her own. Because of this, her studies have been put on hold.
One major reason Inez cannot maintain her studies while dealing with housing is the inflexibility of the system.
“They expect me to be available at all times, either on the phone or in the office, to progress our housing request,” she says.
For Inez, escaping violence was only the beginning. What followed was a continuous administrative maze that she had to navigate alone.
“It’s been really hard to do this as a young person, not knowing the process, not knowing the rental subsidy even existed, which also makes it harder because I don’t know what we’re entitled to,” she says.
“Then there’s all the paperwork,” says Inez. “I was constantly being told it was done incorrectly or something was missing. I was told I hadn’t provided certain information when I knew I had.”
“I’ve provided over 90 documents by this point.”
At times, it felt like Inez’s family were being torn apart.
“My little sister and I could get into youth accommodation but that would leave our mum on her own,” says Inez. “I was told, ‘It’s either that or you all just stay homeless.’”
“My mum, sister and I have ended up sleeping in my car at times while I’ve been trying to sort this out.”
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Finding homelessness support
Then came a lifeline. A friend who had accessed Youth Off The Streets services when she was younger referred Inez to the organisation, where she was connected with a caseworker.
“I’ve had help from Youth Off The Streets to deal with the housing department because usually when I went in and was trying to manage all this myself, I would get to the point where I would literally cry,” says Inez. “When I go in with my caseworker, they speak differently to her and it’s much better for me.”
Now, Inez is currently receiving support from the Engagement and Support team to navigate the complexity of the housing system and find a stable, subsidised rental property.
Despite the challenges of her situation, she’s still hoping for a breakthrough.
“I’m hoping we can get a rental where our combined incomes will pay 30 per cent of whatever the rent is and then housing will cover the rest,” she says. “I wish the department had agreed to that in the first place because we’ve been in the current shelter for two months now. We’re the last people still there.”
Inez knows what support her family needed from the start.
“What we needed when we first left the violence at home was a safe place to stay while we got back on our feet and could pay the rent,” she says.
Inez wants decision makers to understand the deeper impact of domestic and family violence.
“The impact of domestic violence stays with you after you leave the situation,” she says. “So while the housing department might say that we left our previous property because we couldn’t afford it, we were in that situation because of domestic violence.”
“My little sister, mum and I became homeless because of domestic violence and we got stuck in a cycle of poverty,” Inez continues. “Domestic violence is not just one thing that happens and that’s that. This is trauma I still have to deal with and continue to grow from.”
Inez is asking for compassion for those in situations like that of her and her family.
“People’s cases need to be looked at individually and respectfully,” she says. “Everyone’s situation is different and it seems like almost everyone is falling through the cracks, especially young people like me and my sister.”
“You find yourself just sitting here for years and years, begging and begging, and still you have no outcome, no home.”
Behind every housing application is a person like Inez – someone who has faced adversity and deserves the security and dignity of a safe place to call home.
Youth Off The Streets homelessness services
Over a third of young people aged 15–24 presenting to homelessness services report experiencing domestic and family violence. Frontline workers say the rate they see is even higher.
Youth Off The Streets offers a range of homelessness and housing support services for children and young people aged 16–24, as well as support for young people experiencing or who have experienced domestic and family violence.
Our services include early intervention support for young people who are at risk of becoming homeless, 24-hour crisis accommodation, transitional housing, one-on-one casework support, life skills programs, brokerage support to help young people find and keep safe housing and more.
*Name and image changed to protect the privacy of the young person.
