St Kilda Community Housing has between 13-15 per cent female tenants, while Port Phillip Housing Association has less than 10 per cent female tenants.

Hanover has a women’s-only rooming house in St Kilda, while Women’s Housing has one in a neighbouring suburb, at a location it has requested remain secret.

Fitzroy Street Traders Association spokeswoman Patricia Saunders, a well-known campaigner for violence minimisation along Fitzroy Street, said she believed women missed out because they were too frightened to live in St Kilda’s rooming houses.

Her comments came as the association launched St Kilda White Ribbon, a movement opposing violence against women.

St Kilda Good Shepherd service area manager Gendrie Klein-Breteler said the area’s rooming houses were dominated by men.

She said sometimes women accompanied their partners living in rooming houses, while in other instances, women lived in them alone for many years.

St Kilda Community Housing general manager John Enticott said he believed a lack of privacy was the main reason women didn’t want to live in unisex rooming houses, rather than fear of violence.

Port Phillip Housing Association operations manager Tanya Armstrong said women were likely directing their energies into applying for women’s-only housing.

“We don’t have a huge demand from women, perhaps because they don’t want to live in rooming houses,” she said.

“We don’t have anything specifically for women but all of our housing is open to men and women.”

Mr Enticott said rooming houses tended to have more men and shared facilities, and women didn’t usually want to live in those environments.

“As our rooming houses become upgraded and have their own facilities, we believe a lot more women will be attracted to stay as tenants,” he said.

“In our new facilities, 50–50 is our goal. Our newer properties attract more women because they’re self-contained and they’re much lower risk and the accommodation is of a much higher quality.”