The homes of up to 40 Canterbury families at high risk of family violence will be made safer as the Government moves to increase funding for a violence prevention programme.
However, more than 100 central and North Canterbury families would still be at high risk of serious injury or death due to family violence, the Christchurch Women's Refuge says.
Justice Minister Judith Collins announced this morning that the Government would expand a programme that makes homes physically safer from re-entry by a perpetrator to Canterbury, Tauranga and Manukau.
Each home would cost about $3700 to make safer, which included installing alarms, lights, latches and locks.
The safe@home service was developed by Auckland-based Shine in 2008 and had achieved a 100 per cent success rate in the four years it had been operating in Auckland.
The expansion would allow another 300 homes, including up to 40 in Canterbury, to be made safer.
It would be delivered in Christchurch by the Christchurch Women's Refuge, with chief executive Nicola Woodward saying it would offer women and children "real refuge in their own home'', rather than temporary safety in a safe house.
"Only about 10 per cent of our clients actually use our safe house and that number has been decreasing since the earthquakes due to a lack of affordable, safe accommodation for women and children to move onto afterwards.''
The service would be available in Christchurch from September and would be offered to any family assessed as being at high risk of serious injury or death due to family violence.
Woodward estimated up to 150 families in central and North Canterbury would meet the criteria for the safe@home programme, but the new funding was only enough to make 30 to 40 homes in the area safer. ?
"It's a great way to start, but of course we'll still be working hard to support those other 100 or so families as well.''
About half of all homicides in New Zealand were directly related to family violence, and the safe@home was a cost-effective way to mitigate the personal risk and housing issues faced by some of Canterbury's most vulnerable families, Woodward said.
"Traditional patterns of service to families living with family violence haven't really changed the family violence picture in New Zealand - statistics prove that. It's time to do things very differently. We're developing a new and unique range of services that we believe can achieve real, long-term change and break the cycle of family violence."
Anyone who was concerned about family violence should phone Christchurch Women's Refuge on 0800 1 REFUGE (0800 1 733 843). In an emergency always call 111.
- ? Fairfax NZ News
Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/7586031/Families-homes-to-be-made-safe
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