Women aged over 55 and those escaping domestic violence are most likely to be homeless in Cairns
With house prices spiralling skyward and rental prices prohibitive, an alarming new trend is sadly emerging among the homeless in Cairns.
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WOMEN fleeing domestic violence and those aged over 55 are most likely to be homeless in Cairns, with the latter a growing cohort.
Women’s Centre manager Nicole Dye said the number one reason women became homeless was because of domestic violence – and there was nowhere for them to go when they left shelters, with a rental vacancy rate of less than one per cent and spiralling house prices in the Far North.
What we’re finding is that we don’t have any way to move those women safely into housing,” Ms Dye said.
“There’s no perpetrator accountability – the onus is on the woman to keep herself and the children safe, to remove herself from the house.
“The number one cause of homelessness for women and children is without a doubt, domestic violence,” Ms Dye said.
She said women were more prone to homelessness than men because of gender inequality – they earned less, often had not worked full time and didn’t have substantial superannuation accumulated.
“The over 55 cohort has risen by about 32 per cent, it’s gone up substantially,” Ms Dye said.
“In the past 12 months, of the 900 women and children we saw, I would say a quarter of them are over 55 and experiencing chronic homelessness – these are women that really have nowhere to go, they’re sleeping in their cars.”
Ms Dye said rentals were scarce and largely unaffordable.
“It’s sad, these older women have lived an amazing life, they’ve achieved everything and the system has failed them and they’ve fallen through the gaps,” she said.
A recently released report by the Retirement Living Council said women aged 55 and over were the fastest-growing group of homeless.
Retirement Living Council president Marie-Louise MacDonald said age was often a barrier to secure a housing loan and the pressure of rent ate into modest retirement savings.
“These are women who have done everything that society has asked of them, yet they are in housing limbo because they have too much money to qualify for social housing and too little money to buy a house,” Ms MacDonald said.
Buying a unit in Cairns can be cheaper than renting for people who have the money to purchase property.
“These are women who do not deserve to be staring down the barrel of homelessness at this point in their lives.”
Across the Cairns region, rent has increased by 10.7 per cent over 12 months to a median of $550.
The cheapest suburb to find a rental is Manunda on $461, followed by Woree on $481, White Rock on $493 and Westcourt on $498, CoreLogic data reveals.
Shelter Housing Action Cairns executive officer Sally Watson said the federal budget did nothing to address a growing rental affordability and supply crisis.
“Current renters who can’t afford rising prices will continue to struggle to make ends meet,” Ms Watson said.
“There has been no real change to Commonwealth rent assistance for about 20 years – this continued blind spot in relation to the plight of renters is becoming ridiculous,” she said.
Originally published as Women aged over 55 and those escaping domestic violence are most likely to be homeless in Cairns
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