More older women sleeping in cars

Older women struggling to pay rent in 50s, 60s and 70s finding themselves homeless.

Older women are traditionally more reluctant to seek help with housing instability.

The past five years have seen a 75 per cent increase in the number of older women sleeping in their cars, the Aged Care Royal Commission has heard.

Older women were traditionally reluctant to seek help when facing housing instability, Fiona York, executive officer for Housing for the Aged Action Group told the commission, yet they were increasingly in need.

“Older women use all of their resources before going for help,” Ms York said. “They may not identify as being at risk, and then once they’ve run out of other ­options, so they can’t afford the rent any more, they’ve stayed with friends and family as long as they can … then the only option left to them is rough sleeping, sleeping in their cars.”

Ms York said older women struggling to pay the rent in their late 50s, 60s and 70s often did not consider themselves at risk of homelessness, even when the rent took up significant amounts of their income, and their security of tenure was limited.

“If you are a single older woman and you are on a fixed income like Newstart or the pension and you are living in a private rental, the reality is that you are at risk of homelessness and that’s a very confronting thing for the whole of society to think about,” she said.

The commission is this week examining aged care for people with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, LGBTI people, homeless people or those at risk of homelessness, people who have survived forced ­removal from their parents, and Defence veterans.

Counsel assisting the commission, Peter Gray, said diversity was not an incidental element of aged care.

“It must be a deliberate design feature,” he said.