May General Meeting

27 May 2021

Our First Face-to-face general meeting! This meeting will still be going ahead. In line with new COVID restrictions, we'll be wearing masks and limiting the meeting to 30 people. You can also join in on Zoom.

Budging the Budget

12 May 2021
Fiona talks to Dini Liyanarachchi, HAAG's new NSW-based worker about political advocacy and our national campaign for housing justice.  They chat about the Federal Budget, what it means for public housing (not much) and older people (a little more than not much)
Listen in on 3cr.org.au

Submission to the Retirement Villages Act Review Options Paper

The options set out in this paper show a serious lack of understanding of the issues raised by residents and other stakeholder about retirement village residencies. Retirement villages are too often unfair and exploitative. The Options Paper proceeds as if the problems were only that residents mistakenly perceived villages to be unfair and exploitative, or as if more information would resolve resident concerns. This is not the case. Again and again, the options paper proposes more information rather than increased protections for residents. This is a persistent failure of the options paper, and if the government proceeds on this basis the reform process will fail current and future retirement village residents.

PDF icon Read our submission

Moving in with mum

Vesna became homelessness after her private rental property became far too expensive on her income and it was no longer a viable option as a single person. Private rental was far too unaffordable even with the part-time employment she had at the time. She had little choice but to leave her tenancy and live between the homes of friends and relatives on a temporary basis.

Read more

Moving across town

This is a story of one of our Home at Last clients, Alma Diri.  Alma, 74, first approached Home At Last about 9 years ago. Following her divorce from her partner, Alma lived with her daughter for some time. However, she had to leave her daughter’s place and look for alternative accommodation to continue living independently.

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Retirement Villages Act Review Joint Submission

The current Retirement Villages Act Review is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to overhaul the regulatory framework for retirement villages in Victoria. We have the chance to future-proof this legislation, and lead the nation in terms of retirement village regulation, which will enhance resident confidence in the sector.

We see the Options Paper as a non-definitive list of ways we can improve retirement village regulation in Victoria. We have set out our shared vision and recommendations for the review in this joint submission with the Consumer Action Law Centre, Council on the The Ageing Victoria, and Residents of Retirement Villages Victoria.

PDF icon Read our joint submission here

Building Better Homes Win!

HAAG has been advocating for universal housing design principles to be included in building standards for many years. On 30 April, we were excited to learn that the building ministers listened, and made the landmark decision to improve housing accessibility for decades to come.

Falling through the gaps - older women and housing

28 Apr 2021
Fiona and Shane talk to Dee, an older woman living outside a major city in Victoria who is in housing stress.  She is ineligible for public housing but does not have enough savings to purchase a home, and is falling through the gaps of a system that has very few affordable housing options.  Many older women find themselves in this situation and we are referring to this group as "the missing middle", although Dee does not use that term.  She tells us about her housing situation, and what she would like the government to do about it.Dee was part of our Ten Year Affordable Housing Strategy consultation.  You can read our submission here: https://www.oldertenants.org.au/sites/default/files/haag_submission_to_10_year_housing_strategy_final.pdf
Listen in on 3cr.org.au

Navigating aged care services with older people at risk of homelessness

Can you identify an older person experiencing or at risk of homelessness, or know what aged care services are available to them?

In OPAN's live webinar on March 30 2021 we discussed how aged care workers can support older people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. HAAG joined this panel of experts explored how to identify homelessness among older people, an overview of existing support services, service access barriers and solutions and supporting homeless or at-risk individuals to access services.

Submission to: Establishing a 10-Year Strategy for Social and Affordable Housing Discussion Paper

Our submission covers all areas of HAAGs work in relation to the Victorian Governments 10 year affordable housing strategy and 'Big Housing Build'.
We recommend that the Government must take steps to produce more housing that is suitable for and available to older people at risk of homelessness. This could mean reinvestment in the Independent Living Unit (ILU) sector, changes to social housing eligibility, further increases in housing stock, targeted shared equity initiatives and/or support to scale pilot projects.

PDF icon Read the submission

 

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