Australasian Housing Institute

YWCA Australia is proud to launch the ‘ Women’s Liveability Assessment’ , a free online audit tool that helps community housing providers, governments and other housing providers to ensure their housing meets the unique needs of their women residents. The Women’s Liveability Assessment covers four key domains of impact – Safety and Security, Participation and Connection, Agency and Health and Wellbeing, drawn from YWCA’s Women’s Housing Framework. It prompts housing providers to consider how residents are supported after experiencing trauma, assisted to build skills and access employment opportunities and ensure housing meets residents’ family and caring responsibilities. According to data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, women make up the majority of social housing, including community housing, residents across Australia. The development of the Women’s Liveability Assessment was led by Libby van der Waal, YWCA’s General Manager, Housing Operations, with sector partners CHIA Vic, Community Housing Limited and Women’s Property Initiatives. “What sets this tool apart is that it takes a holistic approach, considering physical spaces and locations alongside support needs and community connections,” said Ms van der Waal. “After seeing the positive outcomes for our residents, we wanted to support other housing providers to see that same impact.” Karina Carroll, from Women’s Property Initiatives, welcomed the opportunity to participate in the development of the tool. “Women and women led households have unique needs and the assessment enables community housing providers to think about those needs, when they are designing new homes. Women’s Property Initiatives are embedding the use of the free online audit tool in all future projects”. Kate Dodd, from Community Housing Limited, is looking forward to implementing the tool to track the organisation’s current impact with real time data. “This data-driven approach enables us to implement direct actions quickly, leading to immediate improvements in the services we offer our residents. The tool is versatile across different environments, addressing specific domains critical to our operations.” The tool includes a number of questions in each domain, and housing providers are given a score per domain and overall. Each question provides Actions for Improvement to improve policies, practices and processes to better meet the needs of women. The project was funded by Homes Victoria. Media Contact: Kathryn Brennan, YWCA Australia M:0408 429 655 E: kathryn.brennan@ywca.org.au