Soraya Sparrow remembers the Christmas her family was evicted.
Between the ages of six and fifteen, she had lived in eight different homes and remembered the experience as the worst year when their family “completely fell apart.”
Mrs Sparrow is the eldest of three sisters (now 34, 31 and 25) who found the holiday periods particularly unstable and stressful due to housing insecurity.
“I don’t have the traditional nostalgic memories of Christmas that many do,” she said.
“While other families seemed to be settling into traditions and routines, we had times when we were focused on settling into a new place, or we were packing to move again.
“We were evicted from our home one year, and as a result we lost all the Christmas decorations and a lot of other belongings.”
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In Australia, more than 280,000 people accessed homelessness services between 2023 and 2024, with 72,000 turned away due to lack of capacity.
Although it should be the happiest time of the year, there are many who face Christmas without a home to call their own.
Domestic and family violence remains the leading cause of homelessness for women and children; by 2025, 73 percent of women will seek support from Women’s Community Shelters to escape domestic and family violence.
“If you don’t have a stable job and money, trying to find a stable home for your children is very, very stressful and unfortunately becomes a cycle where it becomes a cycle because of those finances,” Ms. Sparrow said.
Ms Sparrow said having to pack up their lives so often caused a lot of trauma.
“In my mother’s case, by the time we reached our teenage years, it had really taken a toll on her mental health,” she said. “She had relationship breakdowns and domestic violence.”
Soraya Sparrow and her mother
Mrs. Sparrow’s family did not have many possessions or furniture. She said they relied on donations, including food parcels from a school friend’s church.
“Our living room had camping chairs, my mother slept on a mattress on the floor and someone was kind enough to donate beds for us,” she said.
The recent launch of the Inner West Project is a landmark response to the housing and domestic violence crisis in NSW as it is the Southern Hemisphere’s largest ‘in the meantime’ housing initiative
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73 percent of women who sought support from Women’s Community Shelters in 2025 escaped domestic and family violence
TOGA Group, Women’s Community Shelters, Jewish House, Housing All Australians, FDC Construction & Fitout and the NSW Government have come together to provide 36,599 safe nights a year for people experiencing homelessness.
Ms Sparrow, who now works at Interface Flooring, said the project will keep families together in a place that doesn’t feel institutional, but warm, welcoming, safe and supportive.
“A place like this would have given my family a new sense of hope,” she said.
“It is the start of a positive journey for women and children to rebuild their lives.”
Soraya Sparrow’s vacation experience was affected by housing insecurity
NSW’s first modular housing response to crisis housing also recently opened its doors to support women and children, on the eve of ‘International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women’ on November 25.
Annabelle Daniel OAM, CEO of Women’s Community Shelters. Image: Cassandra Hannagan
Women’s Community Shelters (WCS) and its project collaborators ‘Biyani House’ were funded by the NSW Government Core and Cluster Program worth $2.4 million.
With everyday life crucial in protecting women and children, the advantage of modules over traditional housing is the speed at which the units were prefabricated in Victoria over a 10-week period and lifted onto the Biyani House site in August.
Biyani House Modular living room and bedroom. Image: Cassandra Hannagan
November also saw the launch of Arada House, a new safe haven in partnership with Women’s Community Shelters.
Located in the Campsie area, Arada House consists of eight apartments (six two-bedroom, two one-bedroom), each with parking and balconies, as well as shared facilities including a laundry room and dedicated parking for eight vehicles.
The safe haven will provide an additional 20 safe bed nights per night, which equates to 7,300 additional safe bed nights per year for NSW.
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“Domestic and family violence is not something that stays behind closed doors – it affects every part of our community, including workplaces,” said Ahmed Alkhoshaibi Group CEO of Arada.
Commenting on the partnership, Annabelle Daniel OAM, CEO of Women’s Community Shelters, said: “Together we have created a safe haven that will support women and children affected by DFV for the next 15 years.”
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