Quarter of a million older Australian women at risk of homelessness

Governments must support better housing options for a growing cohort of older women at risk of homelessness, the Retirement Living Council warns.

Dianne Shiels, with her dog Ariane, enjoy time with friends at Jasmine Grove. Picture: Britta Campion

Dianne Shiels was a school principal and an education consultant working in Australia and the US before losing her savings in late middle age to an unscrupulous man.

After a series of property and personal setbacks, she moved in with her mother, supporting her through worsening dementia until it became too much. Her mother moved into a nursing home, the house sold to pay for it.

“At that point, age 67, I was basically homeless. I couldn’t buy. I tried renting in Wollongong but they wouldn’t take Ariane, my dog,” Ms Shiels, now 69, said.

“My best friend gave me the downstairs area in her house, and I paid her rent.”

“I was feeling absolutely humiliated. I had a successful career. How did I get into this predicament, when I’m smart enough to look after myself?”

Her story has a happy ending, but it highlights a growing social problem in Australia, the housing insecurity of older women.

“We know as many as 240,000 women aged over 55 are considered at risk of homelessness,” said Retirement Living Council president Marie-Louise MacDonald.

Many of them are in the so-called “missing middle.”

“These are women who have done everything 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.

“Their age is often a big barrier to securing a housing loan, and the pressure of paying rent quickly eats into modest retirement savings.

“They do not deserve to be staring down the barrel of homelessness at this point in their lives.”

Dianne Shiels with her dog Ariane, photographed at her current home at Jasmine Grove. She says that at age 67 she found herself “basically homeless”. Picture: Britta Campion

Ms MacDonald said governments were giving scant policy attention to the housing precarious­ness of older women.

“If governments have any plans, they don’t go much further than wanting to put them in boarding houses,” she said.

“We want them to have access to purpose-built, age-friendly ­accommodation.”

The council has released a new report offering a suite of practical policy options for governments to support women at risk of homelessness into safe and secure long-term homes.

The report, Retirement Living – A Solution for Older Women at Risk of Homelessness, notes many have had conventional lives of employment and family stability until a late-in-life event knocks them off course.

It recommends making more retirement living properties ­eligible for Commonwealth ­Rental Assistance, introducing ­government-backed loans to help eligible people enter retirement communities and allowing early access to superannuation to help older women secure retirement living housing.

And it proposes governments create incentives for retirement communities to offer affordable housing options targeted at women.

Ms Shiels now lives at Jasmine Grove, an eight-villa development created for older single women within the larger IRT ­Kanahooka retirement village near Wollongong. It offers a more financially manageable model, with a one-bedroom villa and a community building containing a shared kitchen, lounge and dining areas.

Opened in December, it was part-funded by the federal government’s Building Better Regions Fund.

“It’s designed for ageing, not at my present age but for my future.

“I feel really safe living here,” Ms Shiels said.

“And the other residents make it a very caring environment. We’re all different but we’re all strong women in our own way.”