NOWHERE TO GO

Housing crisis means residents escaping domestic violence are left with …

THE housing crisis has left those experiencing domestic violence with nowhere to go as services struggle to provide safe accommodation.

Queensland Police Sergeant Tony Rehn said the critical housing crisis across the region was of great concern for people trying to escape domestic and family violence (DFV).

“If we needed a DFV victim rehoused right now, we haven’t got a house,” he said.

The Toowoomba region vacancy rate is at 0.4 per cent.

THE housing crisis has left those experiencing domestic violence with nowhere to go as services struggle to provide safe accommodation.

Queensland Police Sergeant Tony Rehn said the critical housing crisis across the region was of great concern for people trying to escape domestic and family violence (DFV).

“If we needed a DFV victim rehoused right now, we haven’t got a house,” he said.

“We contact DVAC (Domestic Violence Action Centre), who then liaise with housing … we are having all sorts of trouble with emergency housing across the board.”

The Toowoomba Region vacancy rate is at 0.4 per cent, and Sergeant Rehn said while police officers’ jobs were to refer, transport and offer assistance where they could, “we simply don’t have the housing ability”.

Motels have been used, and Sergeant Rehn had been told of caravans in yards being shared.

The number of DVO applications made in Toowoomba have risen by 5.2 per cent this year up to April 30, compared to the 2020-21 year.

Contravene offences have risen 31.2 per cent, while flagged DFV offences with charges lodges have increased 118.6 per cent during the same time period.

However, shocking statistics show strangulation offences have increased 225 per cent for the year to April 30 compared with last year.

“We now know that a person using violence who puts their hands around a throat of a person experiencing violence, that person is probably 8to 10 times more likely to die at their hands, because they have gone to that level … and are prepared to do that,” he said.