Illustrations and photography telling the stories of three women and their experiences of homelessness across Victoria will go on display at the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre this week, before a community forum at Wurriki Nyal Civic Precinct on 10 June.
Walk In Her Shoes follows the journeys of three women who became homeless at different stages of life – as a young person, a mother and an older Victorian – and demonstrates how family violence, poverty and a lack of safe housing can push women into crisis.
The exhibition comes as the latest Australian Institute of Health and Welfare figures show women and girls made up 59 per cent of Victorians seeking help from homelessness services in the 2024-25 financial year, with nearly 62,000 women and girls coming to services.
There were more than 13,000 girls under 18 and more than 6,800 women aged 55 and over. More than half of women and girls coming to homelessness services had experienced family and domestic violence.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a community forum bringing together lived experience advocates, frontline services, local MPs and community members to discuss what is pushing more women into homelessness in Geelong and across Victoria, and what needs to change to keep them safely housed.
The panel includes lived experience advocate Jessie Moore from Meli, alongside Dr Sarah Mansfield MP, Member for Western Victoria, Chris Couzens MP, Member for Geelong, Josephine Taylor from Meli, and Violet Pearson and Elyssia Graham from Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-Operative.
Council to Homeless Persons CEO Deborah Di Natale said the exhibition showed the human reality behind Victoria’s social housing shortfall, particularly for women and children escaping violence.
“In Geelong, as across Victoria, women and girls make up the majority of people turning to homelessness services. Behind every one of those figures is a person who needed somewhere safe to go and couldn’t find it.
“Victoria needs close to 80,000 extra social housing properties over the next decade just to reach the national average. 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.”
The exhibition runs at Geelong Library and Heritage Centre (51 Little Malop Street, Geelong) from 3 to 10 June, and at Biyal-a Armstrong Creek Library (20 Main Street, Armstrong Creek) from 11 to 17 June.
The community forum takes place at Wurriki Nyal Civic Precinct on Wednesday 10 June, 6:30pm to 8:30pm. Entry is free.
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