Dear Ministry of Social Development,

I am writing to request clarity around how MSD/WINZ policy prioritises housing women—with or without children—leaving domestic abuse contexts, specifically in the following ways:

1. Do women who relocate regions to get away from their abuser face restricted access to emergency and/or transitional housing because they moved areas?

2. Bidois et al. (2024) note that “The rating system for housing that is currently used by WINZ” does “not automatically place[]” the “women and children who are at risk of domestic violence or abuse…at the top of the waitlist” (p. 23). Is this still accurate? How would these circumstances be differentiated in any way from the hardship experienced by others in need of emergency/transitional housing?

Yours faithfully,

Jo McIntosh