From custody to community: the housing crisis facing women leaving prison
23 Sep 2026
Concurrent Session 17| Thursday 8 October| 11am
Women are the fastest-growing cohort in Australian prisons — and for most, the sentence doesn't end at release. It continues into homelessness.
That's the confronting reality at the heart of this session which makes the case that this isn't an accident, but a predictable outcome of how housing and justice systems are designed.
Most women in custody are held for short periods or on remand, for low-level, non-violent offending connected to poverty, addiction and trauma — and First Nations women are dramatically over-represented in these numbers. On release, having no fixed address isn't just a hardship — it can breach parole conditions and tip women straight back toward the justice system, feeding a revolving door between prison and homelessness.
Even where social housing exists, women leaving custody are routinely locked out of it. Risk-based tenancy assessments, historical debts and eviction records disqualify applicants with a criminal history, and mainstream priority housing categories rarely name ex-prisoners at all. The private rental market, already under pressure, is effectively closed to women with low or no income immediately after release.
Homeward Sisters: a cross-agency initiative to remove barriers to accessing social housing in NSW for Aboriginal women leaving custody
Jenefer Duffus, Homes NSW and Natalie Bradshaw, Legal Aid NSW's Housing and Homelessness Specialist Team
Jenefer and Natalie will present on Homeward Sisters, a cross-agency initiative launched in February 2025 by Homes NSW, Legal Aid NSW and Corrective Services NSW to remove barriers for First Nations women leaving custody from accessing social housing. Women were engaged by Legal Aid while still in custody and referred into a streamlined, coordinated process. They will speak to what the pilot's evaluation shows about the power of cross-agency collaboration and culturally grounded, evidence-based practice, and why partner agencies have since embedded the model into business as usual.
Disrupting the narrative: why housing developments must allocate homes for women leaving prison housing people when little to no housing is available: a focus on prison impacted communities
Debbie Kilroy OAM, CEO Sisters Inside, and Tabitha Lean, prisoner activist, Sisters Inside
Debbie and Tabitha will challenge delegates to rethink homelessness among criminalised women not as a personal failure or a service gap, but as a structural outcome of policy choices — imprisonment without resourcing, punishment without support, and reintegration without housing. Drawing on frontline advocacy and lived-experience expertise, they will argue for a national commitment that all new housing developments in Australia allocate at least 5% of new builds to criminalised and imprisoned women and girls returning home. Their presentation will also address what implementation could look like in practice — allocation frameworks, tenancy supports, partnerships with community-led women's organisations, and safeguards against stigma and risk-based gatekeeping.
Housing people when little to no housing is available: a focus on prison impacted communities
Marisa Moliterno, and Rebekah Ross, Community Restorative Centre
Marisa and Rebekah will present on how a service with no housing stock of its own manages to house people exiting prison in the middle of a housing crisis — including many facing public housing wait times of 10 years or more. They'll unpack the specific service model behind the RHSP's results: co-location with a government housing service, wrap-around casework, and long-term, individualised support. They will make the case for why this model deserves to be adopted more widely.
This session speaks directly to anyone working across housing, homelessness, justice and legal services who wants practical, evidence-based models for rehousing one of Australia's most overlooked at-risk populations.
Registration for Australian Homelessness Conference 2026 closes 28 September. Save 10% when you book three or more tickets in the one transaction.