SASSI Quarterly Snapshot | April 2026
Every quarter, SASSI shares a snapshot of what we are seeing across the Illawarra and Shoalhaven. We do it because we believe an informed community is a stronger one, and because the data we collect tells a story that deserves to be heard.
This quarter, that story is one of real pressure on real people. It is also a story of a community that keeps showing up, and a team that refuses to look away.
Here is what we know.
The demand on our services.
In the first 90 days of 2026, SASSI received 545 referrals. That works out to six women reaching out for help every single day, for the entire first quarter of the year.
Seventy per cent of those referrals came from women impacted by domestic violence. These are women who made a brave decision to ask for support, often for the very first time.
In that same period, SASSI supported 622 new clients and provided 12,464 bed nights of safe accommodation.
That is 12,464 nights on which women and children had a roof over their heads and people around them who cared. Our Shoalhaven Homeless Hub also supported 273 people across the quarter, providing essential care to those sleeping rough or at risk of homelessness in Nowra.
That is a lot of people. And behind every one of them is a story of courage.
The social housing picture.
There are currently more than 4,300 households on the social housing waitlist in our region. For many of them, the expected wait time is not months but years — and in some parts of the Illawarra and Shoalhaven, more than a decade.
That is a long time to wait. And we understand how heavy that feels for families who need stability now.
It is why SASSI works hard to provide transitional and crisis accommodation as a bridge, so that women and children are not left without options while the broader system catches up. We cannot fix the waitlist on our own, but we can make sure that the women in our community are not navigating it alone.
The private rental market.
The private rental market is tough right now: median rents across the Illawarra and Shoalhaven have risen significantly across all property types, and rental availability has never fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels.
Anglicare’s 2025 rental snapshot found no properties in the Illawarra were affordable for someone on income support, and just one per cent of available rentals on any given weekend were within reach for a couple on minimum wage with two children.
Those numbers are confronting. But they also tell us something important: the need for services like SASSI has never been greater, and the work we do has never mattered more.
Where we go from here.
The housing landscape is challenging, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. But we are also genuinely proud of what this team delivers every single day, and genuinely moved by the resilience of the women we have the privilege of supporting.
Change takes time. But it happens because of communities that care, organisations that persist, and people who choose to help rather than look away.
The numbers tell a story. But so does this: in the first quarter of 2026, 622 women found their way to SASSI. And every single one of them took a step toward something better.