In Campaspe, female homelessness sits at 114.63 per 10,000 people, compared with 80.81 per 10,000 people for males.
Both figures are also higher than the state averages of 94.5 for women and 66.9 for men.
To better understand the housing challenges facing women and gender-diverse people across the shire, Women’s Health Loddon Mallee is calling on participants to share their experiences of housing insecurity through a series of ‘Home Matters’ forums.
WHLM chief executive Kellie Dunn said women and gender diverse people experienced housing differently.
“Women and gender-diverse people experience housing differently because of things like income inequality, caring roles, violence and discrimination,” she said.
“Safe and secure housing is a foundation for health and safety and wellbeing.
“We’re inviting women and gender-diverse people from Campaspe Shire to take part in the community focus groups that explore how housing availability, affordability and safety shape everyday health and wellbeing.”
Homelessness among women is often not visible in the traditional sense and can include couch-surfing, staying in overcrowded housing, or remaining in unsafe situations to avoid sleeping rough.
Women in regional areas also face additional pressure from limited rental supply and high competition, particularly for single-income households competing against dual-income applicants.
Across the board, older women have been identified as one of the fastest-growing groups at risk of homelessness.
Ms Dunn said findings from earlier discussions in Echuca and Kyabram showed many women were reluctant to speak up about their housing situation.
“What we found was that the women who were sharing their stories with us, it actually showed that they were a bit like self-triaging,” she said.
“At times they weren’t even sharing their instability or safety concerns because they actually felt like other people were worse off than them.”
Ms Dunn said this reflected a broader pattern where women downplayed risk in order to maintain access to housing, even when it was insecure.
Participants also raised concerns that support services were often crisis-driven, leaving limited assistance for people experiencing housing stress before reaching crisis point.
Ms Dunn said the information gathered through the focus groups and community survey would be used to inform local planning and future housing responses.
“What we want to do is to bring lived experiences that come through the focus groups, through the survey or the face-to-face groups into local planning and to help inform services,” she said.
“Our hope and aim for this is to be able to share this information with local housing providers and organisations like Ask Justice, to be able to really look at what reform could look like.”
The Rochester focus group will be held at Rochester Community House from 11.30am to 1pm on Tuesday, June 16.
Women and gender-diverse people aged 18 and over across Campaspe are encouraged to participate.
Participants will receive a $100 reimbursement for their time.
To register, visit https://events.humanitix.com/home-matters-rochester
Those unable to attend can complete an online survey at https://tinyurl.com/mr26f3hp
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