The lights, cameras and crowds have finally cleared out of St Kilda following the auctions last month at the Gatwick Private Hotel, a run-down three-storey rooming house that was transformed into six multi-million-dollar apartments for this year's season of the popular home renovation show, The Block.

But as the new owners collect the keys and prepare to move in to their luxury lodgings, ABC News can reveal an "alarming" number of women who used to live at the Gatwick — a place of "last resort" for some of Melbourne's most vulnerable — are currently in jail.

Channel Nine's purchase of the 1930s mansion, which in its prime could house up to 120 people, was welcomed last year by St Kilda residents who blamed the Fitzroy Street boarding house — one of several to close in recent years as part of the area's gentrification — for local problems with "rampant" drug-fuelled violence and anti-social behaviour.

The Block's contestants on auction day for the renovated Gatwick Hotel. ( AAP: Nine Entertainment )

At the time, the local council and state government worked with housing services in St Kilda to find new accommodation, mostly outside the area, for its remaining occupants, who were evicted in time for filming to commence.

But many of those tenancies were unsustainable and fell through, homelessness support workers say, and because of an acute lack of crisis accommodation across Melbourne, dozens were dispersed onto the streets.

This includes at least 32 women who have since been charged and imprisoned for offences lawyers and support workers say are directly related to their homelessness — an issue that affects all genders but which leaves women particularly vulnerable.

Now, with the state preparing to head to the polls after an election campaign dominated by debate over law and order, advocates are calling on the government to urgently boost funding for crisis accommodation and homelessness services to break a vicious cycle that is causing the number of women in Victoria's prisons to soar.

For women without safe, affordable housing, the 'spiral' into criminalisation and incarceration can be fast, advocates say. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

One worker who runs a program supporting under-privileged women in St Kilda told ABC News that, since the beginning of 2018, 32 of her clients who were living on or off lease at The Gatwick have since been incarcerated at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, Melbourne's maximum security women's prison.

Though 17 of those women have been released in recent months, she said, 15 still remain, many of them on remand.

"There is absolutely no doubt that The Gatwick's closure has had an effect particularly on women in the city of Port Phillip," said the worker, who asked not to be named because she feared speaking out would jeopardise her organisation's public funding arrangements.

"I'm not necessarily saying that The Gatwick was the best place for people to live because there were a lot of issues — there were some deaths there, there was violence. But everybody needs a place to stay."

The majority of the worker's clients in Dame Phyllis have been charged with drug-related offences which are believed to be a result of their homelessness, she said. "Many women with involvement in the justice system offend to fund their drug habit and use substances to self-medicate," she said.

"Sleeping rough is extremely unsafe for women so many use drugs to keep themselves awake at night, which provides them with a false sense of security."

The 'spiral' from homelessness to prison can be fast

But locking up women is fuelling a stubborn cycle of homelessness and criminalisation, experts say, and has increased the state's prison population to unprecedented levels.

The most recent Annual Prisoner Statistical Profile, released by Corrections Victoria, shows the number of female prisoners in Victoria has doubled in the past 10 years to 507 (the state's male prison population has risen less dramatically during the period, up almost 70 per cent to 6,644).

This broadly mirrors national trends, with the total number of women in prison in Australia increasing by 77 per cent over the past decade, with Indigenous women accounting for most of that growth.

Do you have a story? Hayley Gleeson and Julia Baird are currently investigating the increase in the number of women being incarcerated in Australia, and why a significant majority have experienced domestic violence. If you have a story to share, contact us at: ABCIPV@gmail.com.

There has also been a sharp increase in the number of prisoners on remand — those who have been charged, not granted bail but not yet sentenced — which experts attribute to the recent toughening of Victoria's bail laws following a review of the system and protracted debate over the government's response to crime.

"Because there are so few places for women to stay in St Kilda" — where many support services and their peer group are located — "my clients are now more dispersed than they used to be. They're more isolated, which means they don't have as many supports around them and they're more difficult to find [and help]," the worker said.

"It's quite simple: being socially isolated impacts mental health which often increases drug and alcohol use which then can result in [offending and] criminalisation. If you're taken away from your social network and don't have family support, the spiral can be fast."

After being renovated for a reality TV show, the new luxury apartments of the Gatwick sold for between $2.8 million and $3.02 million. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

Jill Prior, principal legal officer at the Law and Advocacy Centre for Women, is currently representing four of the worker's clients in Dame Phyllis, and recently assisted an additional eight in getting released.

She said women are at greater risk of poverty and homelessness — often because of their exposure to family violence — which is frequently resulting in contact with police, and being exacerbated by toughened bail laws.

"We have significant hurdles to overcome in assisting women — particularly in the current climate — in relation to bail," Ms Prior said. "When women have no place safe to sleep, risk on bail is heightened or is unable to be moderated to a degree sufficient for a decision-maker to release her."

At the same time as bail laws tightened, Ms Prior added, places where women could be bailed to have closed. "The Gatwick is notorious amongst the judiciary but our clients have described it as a place of last resort — of comfort and non-judgmental available residence.

"We find it easy to pass judgement on the place due to the negative stories of criminal activity but in the absence of this option we are left with women who have no place to go to and for whom life on the streets becomes dangerous and helpless. When this occurs ... the likelihood of criminal offending increases."

Lack of affordable housing a 'critical' issue

Victoria's lack of secure, affordable housing was highlighted in a 2015 report by the ombudsman as a "critical" issue requiring "urgent attention".

The report detailed the well-established links between homelessness and imprisonment — both prior to people being taken into custody and after release — with national research in 2012 finding 52 per cent of female prisoners had been "sleeping rough" or living in short-term or emergency accommodation in the month prior to being incarcerated.

Meanwhile, a different study of women exiting prison in Victoria found those who reported being homeless after being released were more than twice as likely to have returned to prison over the two-year research period. But experts say little has been done to address the problem.

The Council for Homeless Persons has called on the next state government to boost support for prisoners on entry and after release from jail. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

"This is not a new issue, it's not a blip. We know that housing is the issue that can make the biggest difference for women who are at risk of offending or reoffending," said Elena Campbell, associate director of research, advocacy and policy at RMIT's Centre for Innovative Justice.

"The nature of women's offending also means many are in prison for such a short period that they won't qualify for support programs to help address the issues that led to their criminalisation ... they're also often released before they can be referred to appropriate housing, if it is available."

It is also shaping up as an election issue, with the Andrews Labor Government promising early in its campaign to build 1,000 new public housing units to accommodate particularly women and children fleeing family violence if it is re-elected.

The shadow housing spokesperson, Georgie Crozier, did not respond to requests for comment on how a Liberal Government would address Victoria's lack of housing and growing female prison population.

"Everyone deserves a roof over their head, that's why a re-elected Andrews Labor Government will build 1,000 new public housing properties over the next three years across the state," Housing Minister Martin Foley — who is also the state member for Albert Park — said in a statement to ABC News.

"Our promise builds on the 1,500 additional community and public housing properties we've already delivered, helping those with nowhere else to go."

'The Gatwick was an option for those women'

But according to frontline workers and homelessness support agencies, the proposed solutions will not go far enough to address what they believe is a worsening problem.

Billi Clarke, a St Kilda homelessness support worker with 42 years' experience, said hundreds of beds in Melbourne had been lost over the past 18 months following the closure of rooming houses like The Gatwick, which has been compounded by a crackdown on homelessness in the CBD.

"The trouble is, the housing stock isn't being replaced," Ms Clarke told ABC News. "Money is being moved around" — for instance, to rehouse the former Gatwick residents or reinvent existing accommodation options such as The Regal, which is set to be converted into accommodation for disadvantaged women over 55 — "but no additional resources are being invested."

And yet, she said, "we are spending $250 million renovating the MCG".

For all its 'misery', said Billi Clarke, the Gatwick was an option for vulnerable women. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

"We cannot allow any more [housing] stock to be lost," Ms Clarke said. "The Government needs to make a pledge [to say], 'this stops today'.

"It needs to put immediate financial investment into crisis accommodation beds, so we stop paying millions of dollars a year to put people in crappy motels ... and we invest instead in bricks and mortar crisis accommodation so people who are coming out of prison or hospital are not discharged into homelessness."

The state's peak body for homelessness is also calling on the next state government to provide more support for prisoners on entry and after release from prison, recommending 3,000 new public and community housing dwellings be built each year for the next decade.

Jenny Smith, the chief executive of the Council to Homeless Persons said that, after being released, ex-prisoners without family or other support networks often find themselves in rooming houses and crisis accommodation "where they have no hope of getting their life back on track", with data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare showing prisoner exits into homelessness in Victoria have risen 188 per cent in the last five years.

"If we provided dedicated housing for this group, we'd reduce homelessness and also reduce crime," Ms Smith said.

But while advocates in St Kilda are hopeful for more resources, many are also despondent at what they say has been a distinct shift in community attitudes since The Gatwick's closure.

"Homeless people in this area were previously quite well looked after ... but now? I live across the road from a woman who reports anybody walking down our street that she thinks looks suspicious," said Billi Clarke who, together with a group of other sector workers, formed the Support Workers Action Group (SWAG) to advocate for change.

"If you look different — if you're black, if you're sex-working — now you're a target instead of being greeted, welcomed. I really feel like we've lost our community."

For all its "misery", Ms Clarke said, "the Gatwick was an option for those women. And there were workers around them to make sure that things didn't get out of hand, that they were safe."