The growing number of older people facing homelessness and housing insecurity is a problem no-one is willing to acknowledge- and that Australia’s not equipped to address. So what happens when our ageing population is at risk of spending their twilight years on the streets?
“This is the council house where I grew up. It’s where my mum was born and where she died.”
For a federal politician whose salary scrapes $550,000, Anthony Albanese understands the importance of affordable housing better than most. In a 2020 Facebook post, the then-Opposition Leader gave the public a special insight into his background with a rare glimpse at the government housing unit in which he was famously raised.
“I know how important it is to have a safe place to call home,” his captioned concluded.
Albanese was at the time campaigning for mortgage deferrals and eviction freezes at the height of the pandemic. But while the raft of emergency welfare measures employed did effectively cushion thousands of Australians from the worst of the crisis’s economic impacts, the Albanese government’s recent budget suggests a stark underestimation of shocking post-pandemic homelessness rates, particularly among our older population. And though his mother may have lived and died in humble quarters, evidence suggests that many Australians will not be so lucky.
On October 20, a NSW Legislative Council Inquiry into homelessness amongst people aged over fifty-five released its final report, providing a detailed look into what’s becoming both a state and federal policy puzzle. The report found that this year, around 6,400 older people had experienced homelessness state-wide- a 43 per cent increase from 2011 stats. The number of older women who were homeless had increased by 48 per cent, with First Nations people and people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds also disproportionately affected.
Known as the ‘greying’ of homelessness, it’s a phenomenon that’s currently facing many Western countries, particularly the United States. The social and economic causes are multi-faceted, but almost universally it appears that a massive shortfall in social and affordable housing is for older and younger people alike, the biggest barrier to finding safe and secure housing.
This can be exacerbated for older individuals by compounding challenges associated with understanding, navigating, and accessing complex welfare and homelessness intervention systems. Due to social stigma and embarrassment, it’s estimated the true number of Australians at risk of homelessness in their later years is far higher than recorded.
Despite this, the debate on housing affordability appears stubbornly focused on younger Australians such as first home buyers.
For Mission Australia CEO Sharon Callister, the 2022/2023 Federal Budget released last week effectively ignored the fastest-growing group of people experiencing homelessness- older Australians.
“The Royal Commission into Aged Care highlighted that our aged care system simply isn’t equipped to support people from a range of backgrounds, including people who have been homeless or are at risk. Yet, the Federal Budget included no investment for expansion and construction of new specialist homelessness residential aged care facilities that we know are sorely needed,” she argues.
It’s a growing concern that’s hardly going to solve itself left alone. But perhaps one of the issues preventing us from addressing the challenges of Australia’s older population is that as a society, we still haven’t come to grips with the true face of homelessness.
Despite evidence to the contrary, many of us- leaders and policymakers included- have certain misconceptions about what homelessness really is, and who it affects. Though there’s been relatively little research on the subject, (another part of the problem) a 2007 study found that the majority of Australians surveyed attributed homelessness to individual rather than structural factors, with drug addiction, mental illness, domestic violence, and drunkenness the main “reasons” suggested. Less than half of participants considered government failure to provide for people as being a cause.
It’s somewhat understandable then, that Australians don’t necessarily associate homelessness with a sixty-year-old grandmother with a mortgage. Or a seventy-something retiree who’s worked all his life but suddenly falls behind the increasing cost of living.
But if we’re serious about the wellbeing and dignity of all Australians, it’s essential that governments start providing an adequate amount of secure, affordable, and age-appropriate housing options- and don’t let this policy problem fall through the cracks.
Joanna Psaros
5 June 2024
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