Older women and homelessness, a literature review

The catalyst for this literature review, which is a joint initiative of the City of Booroondara and the Salvation Army EastCare, was the lack of service options, coupled with the increasing demand for services to provide appropriate housing and support for older women, including women from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities.Unfortunately, the plight of older women confronting homelessness is not well documented in research into, or data collected on, homelessness in Australia or internationally. Nor are the causes of older women's homelessness well understood and documented. However, researchers and academics are beginning to recognise that women‘s experience of, and ways of dealing with, homelessness differs from men‘s. The key findings of the literature review are noted below.