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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-08-21 Daily Xml
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Housing for Women

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (15:25): I rise to talk about housing that we are providing for vulnerable South Australians, in particular women, in my electorate of Adelaide. This morning, I had the pleasure of joining our Minister for the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence and also the housing minister at one of our key election commitments in Tucker Street in the CBD, that is to build 50 studio apartments for women who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness. Importantly, these will have wraparound services at the site to be able to support the new residents who move into this apartment complex. We understand that older women or women over 55 are the fastest-growing cohort of those experiencing homelessness, so we are looking to pull every lever at our disposal to build more safe, secure housing for the vulnerable South Australian women.

Only a few months ago, I was able to join Minister Hildyard at the opening of the YWCA, which did receive state government support, and that is to provide 24 apartments for women at risk of homelessness or who have experienced domestic, family or sexual violence. We are also very proud to support the next generation Catherine House, which will soon begin construction. The next generation Catherine House will provide 52 apartments for women and for the first time will allow women with children. That will be for victim survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence.

Recently, I have also been working with my local community and the Housing Trust to secure a refurbishment of a Housing Trust complex in the CBD. The main works internally have been completed. Over the last few weeks, women have been moving into that site and are able to access safe, secure and more modern housing. On my community tour of parliament just last week, I was able to meet one of the new residents who has moved into this refurbished Housing Trust complex. It was really wonderful to see how she is settling into the new community.

We do not just want to provide safe and secure housing. We want them to feel welcome. We want them to feel part of a community. I know this particular complex well. I used to live in an apartment next door, and so I was very aware of the significant antisocial behaviour of this particular site. It is a real example of how we can work with the community to develop the residence, the community that we want to be able to provide, particularly for vulnerable South Australians. It was such a pleasure to be able to meet my new constituent and also know that there are many others who will be moving into this wonderful community and feeling at home.

With regard to Tucker Street, where we were this morning, construction is very much underway and likewise worked with the local community around the cohort that we wanted to be able to support as part of this Housing Trust development. When residents do move in, hopefully towards the start of next year, we will make them feel welcome and feel part of the community. It will be great for them to have those wraparound services so that they do not just have a safe, secure home to live in but that they are able to thrive in that community. I am very proud to be able to work with our community to create these positive outcomes.

One community that I have been working with recently in this space is residents within the Gilberton community. It was a tragedy to see the alleged murder of a tenant of a Housing Trust complex, and my sympathies go out to the friends and family of Andrew Sorby-Adams who lost his life, tragically, at that site. I have been working with the local community and we have established a local residents' group in which we are able to hear the feedback of impacted neighbours around this area.

I would like to acknowledge the work of two local residents in particular, Jan and Fred. They have invited me into their homes so that we can talk about the impact of housing in our community and acknowledge the fact that this is something that is a challenge across multiple communities. We want to make sure that we are working together to be able to provide safe and secure housing for South Australians, for tenants of the Housing Trust, and also create those safe and secure communities. I really want to acknowledge the support and the work of Fred and Jan and also other residents within that community, and I look forward to advocating for an outcome.

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