Media Releases
New Renter Rights Service for Older Victorians Welcomed
Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG) welcome the announcement by the Victorian Government of a suite of new renters’ rights service for older Victorians. The Older Persons Housing Rights Service will be assisting people aged 55 years and older to understand and exercise their rights as renters and residents of retirement villages and residential parks. HAAG will partner with Tenants Victoria to provide legal and non-legal advice and advocacy to older people who may struggle to access other renter services, or face additional barriers due to their age or housing circumstances. …Posted in: News Updates, Retirement Housing Advice Service, Tenancy
New report: Older People Suffering in Poor Quality, Expensive Housing
Swinburne University and Housing for the Aged Action Group released a new report at Parliament House in Canberra today, showing that across the country, older people are increasingly facing multiple, overlapping forms of housing precarity, with serious impacts on their health and wellbeing. Older renters face the greatest risk, living in housing insecurity in unaffordable and poor condition homes, and older women disproportionately affected. …Posted in: News Updates, Renter's rights, Campaigns, Federal Campaigns
100 local older people find their “Home at Last”
Since expanding the Home at Last service to the Northern Central Victoria region, Housing for the Aged Action Group is proud to have helped one hundred older people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity to find safe, secure and affordable “forever homes”. …Posted in: News Updates, North Central Victoria
Not just unfair, unlawful: VCAT rules against village charging Deferred Management Fees
Housing for the Aged Action Group welcomes VCAT’s decision which found that the Residential Tenancies Act prevented a land lease village from charging Deferred Management Fees (DMFs). DMFs are a common kind of exit fee charged across several types of retirement housing, often costing departing residents or their families tens of thousands of dollars or more. …Posted in: Retirement Housing, Campaigns, Victoria
Victorian Retirement laws finally pass
Housing for the Aged Action Group welcomes the passing of new Retirement laws after a five year consultation period and many more years of advocacy from residents. The new laws include significant changes that will improve the day-to-day life of residents, such as a mandatory code of conduct for operators, standardized contracts for new residents, limits on renovation costs, fairer rules about allocating capital gain, and greater transparency and clarity about fees. …Posted in: Retirement Housing, Campaigns, Victoria
HAAG urges the Albanese Government to ‘be bold’ as the fight for homes for older people continues
HAAG welcomes the Prime Minister’s election night commitments to ensuring that ‘no-one is left behind’, and to ‘looking after older Australians’. One of the most effective foundations to achieve this will be to ensure that everyone has a secure home they can afford. Distressingly, increasing numbers of older people are prevented from achieving this basic human need. They are at risk of homelessness, or are going without food, essential medications, heating and cooling, and healthcare just to keep a roof over their head. …Posted in: News Updates, Campaigns, Federal Campaigns
Retirement bill a step in right direction, but more needs to be done to protect residents
Housing for the Aged Action Group calls the government’s Retirement Villages Act Amendments Bill, released today after a five-year consultation period, a “mixed bag” that includes important improvements for residents but leaves some major areas of concern inadequately addressed. …Posted in: Campaigns, Retirement Housing Advice Service
Not poor enough, not rich enough: new research highlights older Australians falling through the cracks of housing crisis
More than half a million Australians aged 55 or over are at risk of falling through the cracks, according to a new Swinburne report launched today, that shows they are neither poor enough to qualify for effective and accessible housing assistance nor wealthy enough to secure housing independently as they age. …Posted in: Missing Middle, Campaigns, Federal Campaigns
World Homeless Day plea – VPTA and HAAG push for bold public housing commitment
This World Homeless Day, the Victorian Public Tenants Association (VPTA) is calling on the state government to urgently address the social housing crisis by committing to the delivery of at least 60,000 new social housing homes, a strong proportion of which must be public housing homes, over the next decade. …Posted in: Campaigns
Statement on appropriate regulation of Retirement Villages
A series of stories published by the ABC this week highlighted unfair fees, confusing contracts and poor treatment of residents living in retirement villages. Government must act now to protect retirement village residents from exploitation and eviction. …Posted in: Campaigns, Retirement Housing Advice Service
Older people’s housing forum at Victorian parliament
Improving housing options and preventing homelessness for a growing number of older people at risk of or experiencing homelessness as they age will be discussed today when Ministers, housing experts and people with lived experience of the housing crisis come together at Victorian parliament. …Posted in: Public Housing, Retirement Housing, Campaigns, Victoria
‘Pray the gay away if you want the place’: new survey shows how older LGBTQIA+ people experience discrimination searching for housing
An older LGTBQIA+ person was told by a real estate agent to ‘pray the gay away’ if they wanted to find a rental, according to a new survey from Housing for the Aged Action Group. The survey, which gathered responses from 296 LGBTQIA+ people aged 40 and above, found over a third of respondents had felt discriminated against when trying to find housing. Read the full survey report here …Posted in: LGBTQIA+, News Updates, Campaigns