Political parties must commit to concrete actions to tackle Australia’s housing crisis, including the alarming rise in older women’s homelessness, in the lead up to the federal election, COTA Australia says.
COTA Australia – the leading advocacy organisation for older people – Chief Executive, Patricia Sparrow, says too many older women are falling into hidden homelessness – living in cars, couch-surfing, dog or cat sitting, or crammed into overcrowded housing – often experiencing housing insecurity for the first time in their lives.
Ms Sparrow said in addition to building new community and public housing, political parties need to commit to urgently increase Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) by 60%, and to create innovative programs to help older women find affordable housing and navigate the housing system.
“Too many older women locked out of home ownership, priced out of rentals, and with nowhere to go. Commonwealth Rent Assistance isn’t keeping up, and public and community housing remains out of reach for many who desperately need it,” said Ms Sparrow.
“Older women are one of the fastest growing groups at risk of homeless in Australia, and what’s worse is that the true number of older women experiencing homelessness is much higher than official data suggests. Many avoid sleeping rough and instead move between friends’ homes, stay in cars, or live in severely overcrowded housing. They’re invisible in the statistics – but they are there, and they are struggling.
“We’re not far off having half a million older women at risk of homelessness across the country. These are our often mothers and grandmothers who, through no fault of their own, have found themselves without basic, permanent shelter.”
Ms Sparrow said the crisis is triggered by a perfect storm of factors, including decades of gender pay gaps leaving women with insufficient retirement savings, chronic low wages in female-dominated industries, career interruptions for unpaid caregiving, skyrocketing rents pricing fixed-income retirees out of the market and a critical shortage of appropriate public and community housing.
“Some state governments, like South Australia, are exploring solutions such as co-housing and expanding access to small-scale housing like granny flats and tiny homes. But this crisis can’t be solved piecemeal.
“A national response is needed. The Federal Government must act now—older women have worked and contributed all their lives. They deserve stable housing.”
Media contact: Tamara Kotoyan, 0430 291 890 or Alana Mew, 0419 929 722