We provided a space for women who sleep in their cars. It was a three-month pilot from April to June 2024. The carpark was in the city and open three nights each week. It had a secure fence and a female security guard. Women had access to healthy food, laundry, showers, and a lounge area. They could watch TV, read books, and chat to other women.
During the pilot:
Many women who are homeless live in their cars, so we decided to try out a women’s only carparking space in Newcastle.
The idea was prompted by reports that the number of women sleeping in their cars is increasing. We also attended a screening of an Australian documentary – Under Cover – that was hosted by the Ian & Shirley Norman Foundation at the University of Newcastle. It was about women over the age of 50 who are homeless. They are the fastest growing cohort of homeless people in Australia.
The Australian Institute of Health & Welfare reported the following data from 2022–23; of 274,000 clients that Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS) assisted:
6 in 10 were female (59% or 162,000 clients)
about 14,400 were women aged 55 or older (8.8% of total female clients)
1 in 3 (35% or 90,100) were living as a single parent with one or more children when they sought support (women or men not specified)
around 104,000 (75% of whom were women) had experienced family and domestic violence at some point
about 23,500 (48% women) experienced problematic drug issues.
Women sleeping in their cars were invited to stay at the carpark.
A Support Worker – a woman with lived experience of homelessness – was employed by Embrace People & Place. She was at the carpark when women arrived and left, and helped them settle in, supported them to access services, and helped them prepare to leave in the morning.
A codesign process was used to develop the pilot project. Women who have experienced homelessness collaborated with local women’s services, including the Hunter Domestic & Family Violence Consortium.
Our partners on the project were: Soul Hub which provided food and a space to meet, Nova for Women and Children which did assessments and referrals, and the NHN Group which provided security.
We learned that having a Support Worker with lived experience is very important because it creates safety and trust for women staying at the carpark.
“When I arrived, we were greeted by our support person. That put my mind at ease as she showed me around and made me feel comfortable. Her personal experience with homelessness, as well as her training in community services, meant she was a real asset in the process. I’m very grateful for her.” Quote by a guest to the carpark
“[A guest said that] once she fell asleep, she “slept well”. She expressed that, “it was just a relief to have somewhere safe to park” and she is “finding it difficult to afford $20 a day, if not more, just driving around, with the cost of petrol’.” Comment by a Support Worker
We learned that we need to think about what works best for women to access services. While we were told there were a lot of women sleeping in their cars, not many of them came to the carpark.
We learned that there are challenges when carpark spaces for people who are homeless are shared with others.
We were left wondering why more women didn’t come to the carpark if a lot of women sleep in cars in our community.
We also wondered if the way these women learn about, access and experience services were factors in the low number of women who used the carpark.
To consider the questions that this project raised for us, we started a research project where lived experience researchers talk to women about their experiences.
