Women's Refuges

Halfway Houses appear to be the most positive help for women who leave home usually without possessions, in traumatic emotional states and without recourse from the law.

An example is Halfway House, a house started in Auckland in 1975 by a small group of feminists. The house is run on a roster system and is not intended as a patchup centre. It is to encourage women to become independent. The women at the centre help each other, and roster women help with such things as non-molestation orders, benefits, coping with lawyers and looking for flats. The struggle for refuges such as this one to stay afloat financially, is exhausting and disheartening. The New Zealand Law Society has made submissions to Parliament regarding refuges, seeking financial assistance for such centres but such help has not so far been forthcoming.