Homeless women crisis: Pru Goward backs greater financial stability for females

EXCLUSIVE: Women need to stop relying on “man plans” for retirement to protect themselves from falling into homelessness in old age, according to NSW minister Pru Goward says.

Pru Goward speaks with Bridge Housing CEO John Nicholades and tenant Anne Grizonic at an Ashfield boarding home.

• Ageing women increasingly caught in financial strife

WOMEN need to stop relying on “man plans” for retirement and start ensuring they are financially independent to protect themselves from falling into homelessness in old age, according to NSW Family and Community Services Minister Pru Goward.

Ms Goward told The Saturday Telegraph she was deeply concerned about the rapidly rising number of homelessness women aged 55-plus and wanted to educate young women to ensure they were taking control of their finances.

She said too many women were assuming husbands or adult children would look after them in retirement.

FACS minister Pru Goward meets tenants Assena, Shirley and Susanna.

“My lecture to young women is not to have a man as a plan,” Ms Goward said.

“(One of the reasons) we have this growing cohort of middle-aged women facing homelessness is because they were young women who didn’t manage their finances, their husbands did that.”

“When something goes wrong and he dies or they get divorced, they don’t know how to manage their ­finances … they can be left with nothing.

“I want to get message to young women you really have to watch your finances.

“Be conscious of your work opportunities and protect your financial interests.”

Her warning comes after The Saturday Telegraph revealed charities were reporting increases of up to 44 per cent in the number of older women seeking homelessness services in the past five years.

Visiting a newly restored apartment block in Ashfield that has provided subsidised housing to nine women at risk of homelessness, Ms Goward said she was worried older, single women were becoming the new face of homeless in NSW.

Anne Grizonic found herself homeless when her sister died.

“You’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg. There would be a lot of women living in poor conditions with adult children, sharing bedrooms or living in makeshift conditions,” Ms Goward said.

Ms Goward said there were now 33 new properties across NSW ready for people aged 55-plus on the housing waiting list to move into as part of the $1.1 billion Social and Affordable Housing Fund.

Under the scheme the government has partnered with community housing providers to deliver 2200 ­social and affordable homes in NSW over the next four years.

Bridge Housing chief executive John Nicolades, whose organisation developed the Ashfield apartment block, said about a quarter of their community housing properties were being taken up by single women over 50.

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Mr Nicolades said that older women were particularly vulnerable to Sydney’s affordability crisis, because the majority of them had ­accumulated significantly less super than their male counterparts.

Anne Grizonic, 82, moved into the Ashfield complex in July.

Ms Grizonic had been living with her sister but when her sibling died, she found that she had nowhere else to go.

She said she knew of many older women who were facing homelessness after allowing their husbands to control their finances.

“I’d been married three years,” Ms Grizonic said.