Home of Your Own: A Self-Help Tool Empowering Renters Affected by Family Violence

As part of our human-centred design process, Justice Connect consulted women with lived experience of family violence and homelessness to first understand the problem and then collaboratively design, test, and develop the solution across 12 months.   We conducted 23 in-depth 1:1 interviews with survivor-advocates and frontline workers from eight specialist homelessness and family violence support services, providing payment for the lived experience advocates and offering free counselling after the interviews if needed. This deep research laid the foundations to develop our prototype concepts.

At each stage of the process, we validated our concepts with this panel of survivor-advocate experts, informing the design of Home of Your Owns key features, including the content, user experience, look, feel, and tone of the tool.  Throughout the design process, Home of Your Own received consistently positive feedback, indicating its potential to fill a vital gap for thousands of Victorian renters facing family violence. Feedback from survivor-advocates and frontline workers include:

“Back when I was escaping, I would have loved to know what my rights were. Theres nothing out there to help me stay in place.”

“It gives you a sense of comfort that you've got information about each of the things that I needed.”

Home of Your Own has also been integrated with Justice Connect’s other online self-help tools, including Dear Landlord, harmonising our online tools to ensure a seamless user experience and prevent homelessness, family violence, and financial insecurity.  Since launch, Home of Your Own has been used by over 22,000 people to help understand their rights and take action. We continue to test, design, and develop new iterations of Home of Your Own, continuously improving the user experience and content in response to changing needs of renters.

Home of Your Own provides practical guidance based on whether a renter wants to safely stay in a home, leave a rental, or make a new home safer. Key features include:    A logic-driven question flow which helps renters identify their situation and what support they are looking for, with over 40 different legal scenarios.

Personalised legal guidance helping renters understand their options, and take practical steps to act on their rights, such as how to avoid eviction, or remove a person using violence from their rental home and create a new rental agreement in their name.  Customised document generators to help renters communicate with rental providers about their housing, safety and privacy needs, including changing the locks, or making other modifications, such as the installation of lights and security cameras.

Targeted referral pathways to additional assistance, including specialised legal, housing, financial, and family violence support services.  We commissioned an animated video explaining the purpose and function of the tool after learning that renters may not identify with an experience of family violence and how it may impact their tenancy.  The tool has been purposefully designed with user experience in mind, considering the uncertainty and cognitive load that renters facing family violence experience. To give users confidence, we chose plain, supportive language and positive illustrations. We carefully implemented a trauma-informed approach, giving the person experiencing violence autonomy over the distribution and use of their personal information.

The tool is anonymous, safe, and free to use. We have included a quick exit button, and digital safety information to educate users about online safety risks with instructions on how to clear their browser history because of the digital safety risks experienced by family violence victim-survivors, like stalking, harassment, and device facilitated abuse.

Housing is a rapidly growing area of unmet legal need with few renters understanding their rights, as evidenced by the 2024 Public Understanding of Law Study. Pathways to resolve housing problems are unclear, inaccessible, or daunting. For women and their children in rental homes, a range of housing, legal, financial, and family violence support may be required to stay safely housed.

In Victoria, services are struggling to meet increasing demand as the housing and cost of living crises escalate. There are currently over 30,000 Victorians experiencing homelessness, with the majority identifying as women and children. We have had a 124% increase in help-seeker enquiries related to housing insecurity since COVID-19.  Given the rising prevalence of family violence, financial insecurity, and risk of homelessness, traditional one-to-one service models are not meeting community demand. Home of Your Own is the first of its kind, a digital intervention offering personalised and practical legal information, and creating bespoke letters empowering renters facing family violence.

The tool has built in off-ramps to our one-to-one legal and social work support for renters needing more intensive legal, housing, financial, or family violence assistance. Our multi-channel, multi-intensity model allows us to increase access to legal help in different forms and support Victorian renters diverse needs.

Home of Your Own data also shows how digital tools can reach renters earlier than traditional services, with 73% of users accessing the tool before receiving a notice to vacate. This supports our research, that victim-survivors use technology to proactively research support options.  Home of Your Own meets a key gap in the free legal assistance and community sectors by providing a preventative, early intervention for renters affected by family violence.

We have implemented feedback mechanisms and data analytics that allow us to monitor real time feedback and detailed data from the 22,000 people who have used Home of Your Own. This information feeds into a data dashboard that allows us to identify potential patterns, trends, and opportunities in real-time.

For example, more than half of our users lived with the person using violence, and 76% of letters generated by Home of Your Own were requests to the rental provider to make the home safer by changing the locks or installing other security measures. During user testing, one survivor-advocate shared:

“This is lifesaving because people stay because of complex reasons, and they leave for other reasons and this website will help them make informed decisions. Thats empowering.”

We have also conducted training sessions with homelessness and family violence organisations to promote Home of Your Own and raise awareness of these essential but underutilised legal protections. We have worked with organisations including Launch Housing, cohealth, Sacred Heart Mission, and the Victorian Council of Social Services.  Home of Your Own provides an easy-to-use solution for community workers supporting clients who are trying to understand their options to stay or leave a rental home when they have been affected by family violence. After using Home of Your Own, one support worker shared:

“I’ve learnt some useful information for my work – particularly around issues around advertising and what can be done financially regarding damages to the property and rental arrears.”

Home of Your Own continues to inform our strategic work to advocate for fairer laws and policies, which have influenced change such as the landmark reforms by the Victorian Government that further strengthen protections for renters facing homelessness, family violence, and financial insecurity.