What do single, older women want? Their ‘own little space’ (and garden) to call home, for a start

The “great Australian dream” of owning your own home is rapidly proving to be an illusion for many in the early 21st century. In an environment of exceedingly high house prices, groups who don’t have secure, long-term employment are at risk of homelessness, particularly as they age. Single, older women are one such group at increasing risk of being homeless. While housing policy has neglected this area of concern, recent work is beginning to highlight this gap. Most research has been done in metropolitan areas, but women living in regional Australia merit attention too. In our study of 47 older women who do not own homes in regional New South Wales nearly all were living on low incomes. Their housing ranged from dingy hotel rooms and makeshift sheds or shacks to rundown flats or housing in regional towns. Only a few lived in reasonable circumstances, including community housing. We discovered that the women had clear ideas about what sort of housing would suit them as they age. For all of them, stability and security of tenure were priorities. Other aspects of what these women wanted were perhaps more surprising and differed from research findings on older women living in cities.