Seventy and homeless for the first time: the rise of older women's homelessness

While the stereotypical face of poverty is a older man – a lifetime down on his luck, the fastest growing demographic of people experiencing homelessness is single women over the age of 55. While it is clear that women are victim to lifelong structural settings that have undermined their financial security – the state of the housing market is what is pushing so many women from housing stress into homelessness. Women who are retiring now are dovetailing a bloated housing market that offers just 1.62% private properties nationally that are affordable to a single person dependent on the Aged Pension, with a withering social housing stock, and governments still taking a decades long nap behind the wheel – older women are paying the price.