News

Public housing shortage escalates

Victoria’s public housing shortage has worsened, with more than 1000 people being added to the waiting list.
There were 35,027 people on the public housing waiting list in the March quarter, up from 33,916 in the December quarter, according to state figures released on Thursday.
The 3.3 per cent increase comes after the state government pledged to renovate 9500 public housing properties over five years. But the plan has been criticised for not including funding for new properties to meet the growing demand.

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Published in the Age, Friday 25th April. Steve Lillebuen

State's housing plan is not good enough

The Age Monday April 14 2014

Editorial

The number of Victorian households waiting for public housing, about 34,000, is at the lowest level since 2007. This reflects a fairly consistent, declining trend since the Coalition came to government in 2010. Such improvements, generally, are to be welcomed. As the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has said, getting people into secure accommodation, a place they can call ''home'', helps improve their health and education, their links to the broader community and their employment prospects.

The government is building about 160 public housing sites at New Norlane outside Geelong, a program announced in 2011. However, in a damning report in 2012, the Auditor-General found the state's public housing situation was ''critical''. There was no long-term strategic plan for managing the properties and about 14 per cent were virtually obsolete.

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Older Women's Pathways out of Homelessness in Australia

"Older women's pathways out of homelessness in Australia" was launched on 14 April 2014 by  the Hon. Anna Bligh, CEO YWCA NSW.

There is strong anecdotal evidence that a growing group of people becoming homeless in Australia are women aged over 55.

The Mercy Foundation commissioned a research report from the University of Queensland to investigate this issue and look at possible solutions to the problem. Dr Maree Petersen and Dr Cameron Parsell undertook the research.

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The report is available from the Mercy Foundation website or

Download report  here.

Older women fall victim to crisis in homelessness

Older women fall victim to crisis in homelessnes,

Julia May in the Age, Tuesday 9 April 2014.

In 2012 Joan Lansbury was living in a rundown flat in Pascoe Vale with dodgy hot water, a leaky toilet and appliances that didn't work properly.

She was too scared to complain in case the owner of the flat she'd rented for 15 years put the price up.

But suddenly he did just that, leaving Ms Lansbury, then retired after 25 years as a nursing aide, just $70 a fortnight to live on. She didn't know where to turn.

"I must admit things were so bad at some stages I didn't care whether I was alive or dead," she says.

Ms Lansbury is one of a soaring number of ordinary middle-class women who find themselves on the verge of homelessness in older age.

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Middle class, hard working and homeless

Middle class, hard working and homeles by Julia May

An alarming number of older women in Victoria are becoming homeless. Many are middle-class and reluctant to seek help.

It was hot water Joan Lansbury missed the most. If she felt some warmth in the kitchen tap she'd strip off and race to the shower, no matter the hour. "It didn't last long and you didn't know when the hot water was going to come on again," says Lansbury, 71.

Normally, she would fill the kitchen sink with water she had heated on the stove and sponge herself down. "Try that in the middle of winter. It's not much fun."

I don’t think I ever could see myself living on the street ... But the costs of living are so high that it really can happen to anyone. 

That was 2012, and Lansbury was living in a rundown flat in Pascoe Vale, in Melbourne's north, with dodgy hot water, a leaky toilet and appliances that didn't work properly.

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Bridging the rental divide

The Age, Saturday March 25 2014

About 25 per cent of Australians now rent privately, compared to 18 per cent in 1994-95. They are renting for longer and they are getting older. But amid our property extravaganza, government policies effectively treat renters as second-class citizens.

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Suzy Freeman-Greene is a senior writer at The Age.

image by Dean Osland the Age.

 

The Poverty Trap

Letter by Dalene Salisbury, Housing for the Aged Action Group.

the Age, Tuesday 25 March 2014

"Providing more equity in the allowances should not have the effect of driving older people into further poverty. Our group's Home at Last service hears from thousands of older people who are paying, on average, 60 to 70 per cent of their age pension on private market rent. Many do not use their heating, cut back on food and are ''one eviction notice'' away from homelessness".

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Read the letter  in full at the Age

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"There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort."

- Jane Austen

Authorized by Fiona York, Housing for the Aged Action Group 247 Flinders Lane Melbourne 3000