Since the age of 15, Phoebe has lived a heartbreaking experience. The 32-year-old mother of two has lived with physical and sexual violence by an intimate partner. Her circumstances have only grown more vulnerable as she continues to deal with domestic violence and housing instability. Last week, her former partner gave her a seven-day notice of termination. She considers this a retaliatory eviction, which has caused her excruciating attempts to find safe, affordable housing for herself and her daughters to be exponentially more difficult.
Over the last two years, Phoebe found a welcoming and affordable home in her rental property. As an exemplary tenant, she was never late on her rent and often paid her rent early. That stability was upended when her former partner, in a confrontation with Sylvia over their children, exploded and cut the family, making her feel endangered. He continues to have a key to the property, putting her safety and her children’s safety at risk.
Having lived peacefully in her rental, Phoebe is now at risk of eviction due to the behavior of her ex-partner. This new normal has a huge mental health impact on her. Her youngest daughter, who is a minor, is understandably on edge as well due to the uncertainty and chaos that surrounds them at home.
I’ve got a rental ledger with rent paid always in advance … I’ve lived here for two years, no issues at all, and I can’t tell anyone to be able to escape the violence. I’m trapped here,” Phoebe added, expressing what each trapped victim of this predatory practice goes through with their own story.
Phoebe’s experience points out a major loophole in the system designed to protect victims of domestic violence. She was delighted to find out that her lease-breaking as a victim of domestic violence only required her to give seven days’ notice thanks to Western Australian state laws. The actual experience of seeking new housing is fraught with obstacles.
Phoebe’s ordeal didn’t end here. Her real estate agent wouldn’t provide her with a verbal reference. This refusal had a damaging effect on her rental applications. This rendered her unable to apply for other homes in a timely manner. It took a lot of convincing, but the agent relented and agreed to give her references. By this point, that delay had already put major barriers in Phoebe’s pursuit of safe housing.
I am not able to apply for apartments without his reference, I can’t make it past first round of applications,” she said in dismay.
With domestic violence, the layers go beyond just physical abuse. Tessa Boyd-Caine, from the domestic violence advocacy group Women’s Health West, emphasized that abusive behaviors often manifest in controlling ways that affect victims’ ability to secure safe housing.
“A lot of the abusive and controlling behaviours in a family are not only physical,” Boyd-Caine explained. “You might see a perpetrator seeking an apprehended violence order or seeking controls put on their partner: using domestic violence law and policy that is intended to support victims and survivors, but actually bringing that into part of their controlling and abusive behaviour.”
Phoebe’s predicament highlights a major gap in care for survivors of domestic violence. She’s currently considering filing civil action against her former partner. She alleges that what he did was intended as retaliation against her for seeking to free herself from the abusive marriage.
She highlighted the inequity of it all. If not, he would have been off the lease and gotten half of his bond back, while leaving the entire situation in my lap to figure it all out.
The emotional burden that Phoebe carries isn’t uncommon. Millions of women are kept in the choke hold of abusive partners by systemic obstacles making it impossible to escape. Increasingly, Boyd-Caine said, societal assumptions are that victims of violence should just up and leave their homes. This view fails to acknowledge the nuanced and harsh realities that many victims must navigate.
She explained, “Our starting position for most women and kids experiencing family violence is that the safest option is to not remain in your own home.” And of course, that means they’re not only dealing with the impact of violence in their lives. They’re now in a context where they’ve lost their home or they’re in housing insecurity.
Phoebe’s story illustrates the depths of despair that victims experienced, often feeling cornered and unsafe in their own homes. They are usually too trapped to get out. “The WA government has done awesome work helping the victim, but then it’s come up with another roadblock with the real estate playing God, almost,” she remarked.
This situation affects more than just personal safety. Ultimately, it exposes a deep, systemic shortcoming in housing policy that fails to account for the complicated realities that domestic violence survivors experience.
