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Family law

Family breakdown has been identified in the literature as a major contributing factor to homelessness for many women and men.⁵ As a result, people becoming homeless as a result of family breakdown may experience family law-related legal issues. This is supported by preliminary analysis of the Law and Justice Foundation’s Legal Needs Survey 2003, which suggests that a higher percentage of the homeless respondents surveyed had a family law issue compared with those who were not homeless.⁶ Family law-related issues, in particular child contact and residency, comprised more than half of the activities undertaken by the Women’s Legal Resource Centre for ‘homeless’ clients in the 2002–03.⁷ A number of homeless participants for this study reported experiencing family law-related legal issues.⁸

Issues to do with property settlement were reported as contributing to people’s financial disadvantage, which may exacerbate the experience and risk of homelessness for men, women and their families. In relation to her financial circumstances after her separation from her partner, one homeless participant stated:

I guess after my separation it was a bit difficult. And I didn’t get anything out of the separation. My ex just walked off with practically all my assets … His [new] partner made my life really difficult.⁹

A caseworker supporting homeless men reported that he had clients who had been financially disadvantaged by property settlements and were under financial pressure from child support commitments (particularly if they are on income support themselves).¹⁰

A number of homeless people in our study also reported problems with parenting orders, resulting in loss of custody to the other parent or reduced access to their children.

It’s playing with my head that kids, one day, you play with them, the next day you can never see them. They’re not dead, but you’ve just got no access to them. Originally I’m from WA. I’m married with two children (10 and 7). I’ve got a consent order for access to my children, but I am yet to see them for the first time. We are at war: I signed over the house in order to get access to the children, but because it was open-worded on the consent order, her access could be once every 60 years for 5 seconds, and that’s legal, ’cause there’s no time on it.¹¹

Difficulties with parenting orders were reported to be compounded by a lack of appropriate housing. For instance, one caseworker spoke of a ‘catch-22’ situation, in which to get appropriate housing the parent needs to have residency of children, but in order to be granted residency of children, they must have appropriate housing. This caseworker was of the view that DOH would only give a single man a bedsit or a one-bedroom flat, even if he was seeking residency of his children. However, he added that not having appropriate housing can cause problems for men (and women) who are seeking residency of their children.¹² This was also reported by Chamberlain and MacKenzie:

Colin, 34, lost his job and was subsequently evicted. He lived in his car for some weeks, before moving to a boarding house. He has one son from a previous relationship. Five-year-old son, the heart and soul of his life, is not permitted to stay at the rooming house with him. Custody hearing only now allows him daytime access. They go to parks, beaches, swimming pools, and films, all at higher cost than their home. He is currently behind with his rent and at risk of losing his single room.¹³