A home for Christmas: New Sydney crisis housing

Soraya Sparrow remembers the Christmas her family were evicted.

Between the age of six and 15 she had lived in eight different houses, and recalled the experience as the worst year that “completely fractured” their family.

Ms Sparrow is the eldest of three sisters (now 34, 31, and 25) experiencing housing insecurity made the holiday periods feel particularly unstable and stressful.

“I don’t have the traditional nostalgic memories of Christmas, that many have,” she said.

“While other families seemed to settle into traditions and routines, we had occasions where we were focused on settling into a new place, or we were packing to move again.

“One year were evicted, and as a result we lost all the Christmas decorations along with a lot of other belongings.”

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In 2023 to 2024 more than 280,000 people accessed homelessness services in Australia, 72,000 were turned away due to the lack of capacity.

While it is supposed to be the happiest time of the year, there are many that face Christmas without a home to call their own.

Domestic and family violence continues to be the leading cause of homelessness for women and children with 73 per cent of women seeking support from Women’s Community Shelters in 2025 escaping domestic and family violence.

“When you don’t have a stable employment and money, trying to find a stable home for your children is really, really stressful and unfortunately does become a cycle where because of those finances,” Ms Sparrow said.

Ms Sparrow said having to pack up their lives so many times created a lot of trauma.

“In my mum’s case, by the time we reached our teenage years it had really taken that toll on her mental health,” she said. “She had breakdowns of relationships as well as domestic violence.”

Soraya Sparrow and her mum

Ms Sparrow’s family didn’t have many possessions or furniture, she said they relied on donations, including food hampers from a school friend’s church.

“Our lounge room had camp chairs, my mum slept on a mattress on the floor, and someone kindly donated beds for us,” she said.

The recent launch of the Inner West Project is a landmark response to NSW housing and domestic violence crisis as the Southern Hemisphere’s largest ‘meanwhile use’ housing initiative

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73 per cent of women seeking support from Women’s Community Shelters in 2025 were escaping domestic and family violence

Together TOGA Group, Women’s Community Shelters, Jewish House, Housing All Australians, FDC Construction & Fitout and the NSW Government united affording 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’s the start of a positive journey for women and children to rebuild their lives.”

Soraya Sparrow’s experience of the holidays was impacted 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’ November 25.

Womens Community Shelters CEO Annabelle Daniel OAM. Image: Cassandra Hannagan

Women’s Community Shelters (WCS) and its project collaborators ‘Biyani House’ was funded by $2.4 million NSW Government Core and Cluster Program.

With everyday pivotal when keeping women and children safe, the benefit of modules vs traditional housing is speed with the units prefabricated in Victoria over a 10-week period and craned onto the Biyani House property 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 Campsie neighbourhood, Arada House comprises eight apartments (six two-bedroom, two one-bedroom) each with parking and balconies as well as shared facilities including a laundry area and dedicated parking for eight vehicles.

The safe haven will provide 20 more safe beds per night, equating to 7,300 more 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,” Ahmed Alkhoshaibi Group CEO of Arada said.

Commenting on the partnership, Women’s Community Shelters CEO Annabelle Daniel OAM said “Together, we have created a safe haven that will support women and children impacted by DFV for the next 15 years.”

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