'Having to ask for somewhere to live, it's difficult indeed': Single, female, homeless. Australia's shameful crisis

Older women are the fastest-growing cohort of homeless people in Australia today. According to census data, the number of women aged 65 to 74 describing themselves as homeless increased by 51 per cent in the five years to 2016. But the crisis may be even deeper than these figures show, since older female homelessness often plays out invisibly in relatives’ guest rooms, or on friends’ sofas. The reasons why a single woman is likely to approach the end of her working life more financially disadvantaged than a man often have more to do with entrenched systemic failures than her personal shortcomings.