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."
