What's On: Housing Crisis Forum
Grassroots movement brings women, heavy weights and art together in urgent push to solve local housing emergency
This International Women’s Day (8 March, 2021), the Byron Theatre will host a Community Forum and art installation presented by The Women’s Village Collective to powerfully highlight and aim to solve the current housing emergency; in which hundreds of local women and their children are living with or facing homelessness.
The Community Forum will bring together key stakeholders from local government and organisations in a panel to discuss creative solutions to the housing crisis for women and will be MC’d by Mandy Nolan. Local Futures’ Helen Norberg Hodge will address the Forum. The event is proudly sponsored by The Byron Community Center.
Founder of Women’s Village Collective Sama Balson said, “Back in August I heard about a woman who was rejected from a rental property because she had a baby. I could not turn away from the situation facing so many women, mothers and the elderly placed in vulnerable situations. Who are we as a community if we cannot house women and their babies or our elders? I put a call out on social media for people who wanted to come together to help create solutions for safe, secure housing for women.”
Six months – and many hundreds of conversations and meetings later - the Women’s Village Collective is a movement of over 1,000 local women actively working with key organisations seeking solutions, innovation and creative opportunities for women to create equity and security.
“We’re a network of women actively working with key stakeholders in the area to find real, lasting and immediate solutions. Many of the women in the group are living with insecure housing right now.” Sama said.
“We are calling on all aspects of our local community who can be part of the solution. Organisations, professionals, philanthropists, developers, land-owners, homeowners, companies and community members. We all have the opportunity and responsibility to solve this issue so that we may all thrive together in this community,” She said.
Inaugural Roundtable Meetings called by Women’s Village Collective were attended by One Roof Byron, Byron Shire Council, Northern Rivers Community Foundation, Country Women's Association, The Family Centre, independent developers, The Shift Project, The Greens, North Coast Community Housing and other stakeholders. The process of identifying immediate, medium term and long term housing solutions with women has begun.
To illustrate and witness the impact of unaffordable housing and homelessness on women in our community Women’s Village Collective has also created its installation called Hung Out To Dry.
A powerful installation of hundreds of dresses representing the homeless women will be installed throughout the Byron Community Centre and will play an important role in the Forum to actively awaken people and open hearts to the realities of what the threat of homelessness is for local women.
The Women’s Village Collective Forum will be held at Byron Theatre on Monday, 8 March 2021 at opening at 3.00pm. With the installation opening an hour prior at 2:00 pm. The Hung Out to Dry installation is free and open to the public. Tickets for the forum are available at Byron Theatre. Community members living with insecure housing or homelessness are invited to attend for free.