6 days ago
Homelessness doesn't look like people sleeping on park benches in the Pilbara
When Tess Hulshoff was trying to leave a domestic violence situation, she was afraid homelessness would send her back under the roof of her abusive former partner.
"I was terrified. I didn't know what to do," Ms Hulshoff said.
"I didn't want to be a burden on my friends. I had two young kids and I was a mess."
The Pilbara mother and photographer was kicked out of her home, supplied by her former partner's employer, after telling her partner she was leaving the relationship.
"I had done some counselling and the [counsellor] had identified that I was in a situation of DV and coercive control," she said.
If you need help immediately call emergency services on triple-0
Ms Hulshoff's situation is one experts say is increasingly common in the Pilbara, which recorded homelessness rates five times the state average during the last census.
And research released as part of National Homelessness Week revealed a concerning lack of understanding of homelessness.
Most people understand homelessness as "primary homelessness" — sometimes called "sleeping rough" or "rooflessness".
But researchers say "red dust homelessness", the term for the situation Ms Hulshoff experienced, is accounting for a growing number of cases.
In the mining and gas-dominated Pilbara, where company-supplied housing is often the norm for families, separation and divorce can cause instability.
"If you're not employed by that company, or even if you are, then there are very few housing options for you if you want to separate," said Curtin University professor of social work Donna Chung.
"There is really limited accommodation, particularly if people are living in houses in small communities.
"So if you separate or you are evicted from your accommodation, then there's actually very little option for you."
In Ms Hulshoff's case, it was a combination of a close friend and luck that prevented her and her children from sleeping in her car or returning to the prospect of more violence at home.
"I was driving out of my driveway asking [a friend] if we — myself and two kids — could come to her house and stay," Ms Hulshoff said.
She stayed with her friend for a week before a real estate company expedited a rental home for her — something she said was a stroke of luck.
"It was by chance that one of the real estate agents was a past client of mine and she advocated for me," she said.
Professor Chung said this "secondary" homelessness was common in regional WA.
"There's a group of people who are almost always at risk of homelessness," she said.
"They might have moved into a friend's place, or a family member's place, in crisis and then stayed there because they haven't been able to move out."
The Salvation Army's Danielle Black, who coordinates the charity's Doorways program in Karratha, said the region's homelessness was hidden.
"The amount of times that I've heard the comment, 'But we don't have homelessness in the Pilbara.' We do," she said.
"The last family that we worked with had 18 [people] in a three-bedroom house.
Ms Black said there were added layers of complexity for women and Aboriginal people.
She said affording stable accommodation in an area with acute housing challenges was a key issue.
"In relationship breakdowns, particularly when there's family and domestic violence, you know you need to act quite quickly."
Despite the challenges, Ms Black said the region had some "fantastic" services, including the expansion of the women's refuge in Karratha late last year.
The WA government recently reaffirmed a $5.8 billion commitment to address housing and homelessness across the state.
A state government spokesperson said it had an election commitment to develop a new Safe at Home service in Karratha and had recently funded a similar service in Port Hedland.
The government also funds four homelessness services in the Pilbara region and provides recurrent funding for four family and domestic violence refuges in Port Hedland, Newman, Karratha and Roebourne.
