Women's shelters across the Northern Territory are having to shut down for weeks at a time as staff members and residents test positive to COVID-19, according to a Darwin-based refuge.
In some cases, the crisis has pushed women and children out of safe accommodation and left them with nowhere to go.
"It has been really, really distressing," Susan Crane, the chief executive of the Dawn House women's shelter, said.
"I'm usually a pretty hard nut because I've worked in the sector for so long, but I became really upset about it last week because there's such a bottleneck."
Ms Crane said many women's shelters were designed as communal spaces with shared kitchens, bathrooms and living areas, leaving managers with no choice but to shut down services when COVID-19 enters the facility.
"What that means for Dawn House is, we're getting more and more referrals and less places to accommodate them because other shelters have had to shut down due to COVID for about a week," she said.
Even before COVID-19 began ripping through the NT, many women's shelters were already at capacity, she said.
"We've been full for the last six months.
An existing crisis worsened by COVID-19
The NT has the highest rates of domestic, family, and sexual violence in Australia, with Aboriginal women among the most victimised groups of people in the world.
Those rates have worsened during the pandemic.
Crime statistics released by NT Police in January showed the domestic violence-related assault rate across the NT jumped by more than 10 per cent from December 2020 to December 2021.
Ms Crane said the NT government was taking too long to respond to the needs of vulnerable women and children during the pandemic.
"It's been frantic for months and months and all of our staff are feeling really tired and burnt out."
In a statement to the ABC, Territory Families Minister Kate Worden said the government had been working with domestic violence services to help women and children — including those affected by COVID-19 — find alternative accommodation.
"These packages are provided on a case-by-case basis and can include the cost of accommodation, food and other items such as nappies," she said.
Quarantine centres used to house women and children
Ms Worden also said close contacts and COVID-positive people who had nowhere safe to isolate could do so at Howard Springs quarantine centre or the Todd Facility in Alice Springs.
However, Ms Crane said that was easier said than done.
Until a few weeks ago, she said, there was no clear process for sending women and children who were COVID-positive or close contacts from shelters to Howard Springs.
"In the last two or three weeks, we've finally been able to get one woman with four children and one woman with two children out to Howard Springs," she said.
In a statement, a spokesperson for NT Health said authorities collected medical and social information from people who tested positive to COVID-19 to ensure they had access to appropriate support and accommodation.
"Alternative options consist of hostel accommodation and supervised quarantine facilities, including the Centre for National Resilience in Darwin [Howard Springs quarantine centre] or the Todd Facility in Alice Springs," the spokesperson said.
Ms Crane said supervised quarantine centres were the preferred isolation location for women and children fleeing violence.
"You can't expect a woman with four kids under 10 to isolate in a hotel room for a week with no outdoor space," she said.
"We use hotels that are on the lower end of the scale and many don't have balcony access. We can't expect hotel staff to ensure the woman doesn't leave during the isolation period."
