Researchers find 86 per cent of women and 50 per cent of men who are homeless in WA have experienced violence, as support services say they are swamped with demand.
Kalgoorlie resident Sharne Pieterson said experiencing domestic violence and coercive behaviour had contributed to her being homeless and sleeping on friends' couches and in other temporary accommodation."Mine came about through a failed marriage, domestic violence in my teens and when I was older, and I turned to drugs and ended up homeless.
Ms Brown said her partner was emotionally abusive at the time and she was dealing with alcohol abuse issues. "We get women in when CPFS [Department for Child Protective and Family Support] are trying to reunify them with kids when they have taken them into care, but they've got nowhere to live. "Women tend to be the ones that flee the home, particularly around family and domestic violence issues.
"We are also noticing that people are relocating that may have opportunities for work, but they can't afford the exorbitant rental rates here in the Goldfields."The report showed that while only 6.3 per cent of Western Australians lived in remote or very remote regions of the state, approximately 30 per cent of specialist homelessness services were in those areas.
He said there was also a higher rate of homelessness in the Goldfields compared to the state as a whole.