Central Victoria's leading specialist family violence response agency - Centre for Non-Violence - is calling for greater community conversation and leadership at all government levels about the country's housing crisis.

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CNV staff are reporting the lack of affordable housing is the most significant barrier for women across the Loddon region leaving abusive relationships.

The Specialist Homelessness Services annual report 2020-21, shows 42 per cent of specialist housing services clients had experienced family violence during the past financial year.

The annual report includes information from 1,698 agencies which received government funding to help Australians who were experiencing homelessness, or at risk of homelessness.

AIHW spokesperson Dr Gabrielle Phillips said more than three quarters of clients who had experienced family and domestic violence were female, 77 per cent and 23 per cent were male.

She said around 4 in 10, 39 per cent were experiencing homelessness and 19 per cent were in short term temporary accommodation at the start of support.

Centre for Non-Violence executive manager of programs and services Yvette Jaczina said access to housing right across the Loddon region was scarce, and CNV staff spend significant time trying to find appropriate and affordable accommodation for women and children seeking support to leave abusive relationships.

Family and domestic violence is the main reason women and children leave their homes, with victim-survivors often left to carry the financial and other burdens for leaving an abusive relationship, she said.

"Private rental opportunities are scarce, particularly in our regional locations - Kyneton, Maryborough and Echuca."

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"Women are making choices to stay with an abusive partner to ensure they can provide housing stability for their children.

"Choices have definitely reduced. This is particularly concerning as we know many of these women are at high risk."

Recent comments from CNV staff, include:

"Housing is coming through as the main roadblock to women leaving family violence - and when they do leave, they are leaving into homelessness," one staff member said.

"We have a large number of clients coming through with chronic homelessness - it's not going to get better any time soon," another staff member said.

Ms Jaczina said the impact of short-term accommodation and housing instability, particularly on children, impacted on many areas of a person's life - including schooling, educational outcomes, employment opportunities, family connections and opportunities to rebuild and recover.

In the 20-21 financial year, CNV received $882,650 in state government funding for flexible support packages - which is used to provide a range of supports to victim-survivors, including counselling, education, safety, well-being, independence and other practical or material needs.

Of those funds, $730,000 was used to support women and children to access emergency, stable or secure housing or to secure their homes and obtain personal safety devices.

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Centre for Non-Violence chief executive officer Margaret Augerinos said 'this was only the tip of the iceberg'.

"We know many victim-survivors do not report violence or seek support from specialist family violence or homelessness services," she said.

"More investment is needed in social and community housing to meet both crisis response and long-term recovery and support options for victim-survivors.

Ms Augerinos said family violence and the lack of affordable housing have been at crisis point for some time across Australia - and the pressure on the sector increases every day.

"We do not want to be in the position where we turn people away, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to meet the needs of our clients because there is nowhere for them to go," she said.

Matt Parkinson runs homelessness service MADCOW, a Baptist church social enterprise designed to "make a difference, change our world".

Mr Parkinson said the recent COVID-19 lockdowns also contributed to the on-going crisis.

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He said since the lockdown lifted, they were seeing (on average) 2.5 new guests per week.

"Clients come from locally, interstate, other regional towns and Melbourne," he said.

"If they are local they usually become homeless after a relationship breakdown, whether that be with a partner or their immediate family.

"People are definitely accessing services more but our services have also grown."

MADCOW also run a community based café connecting with disadvantaged and marginalised people and is situated within the Life Essentials hub.

They supply breakfast and hot lunches five days a week and also are used to provide emergency relief and crisis support to those in immediate need.

Currently, unemployed Australians receive just under $50 a day on JobSeeker.

Bendigo Winter Night Shelter chair Terry Westaway said rising housing and rent prices together with such low JobSeeker payments - it was becoming incredibly hard to live day-to-day.

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The Winter Night Shelter was established in 2019, when Bendigo churches opened their doors, to offer a place to sleep, and a hot meal to people experiencing homelessness during winter.

It runs from June 1 to August 31.

"Through the winter night shelter, this year we provided 700 beds, 2,100 meals, averaged eight people.

"The demand is there and there is a large number of people asking for help everyday," he said.

"This isn't going away."

If you or someone you know is experiencing family and domestic violence, help is available. Contact:

If life is in danger, call Triple Zero (000).

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