Publications

The Victorian Government's plans to "retire and redevelop" public housing towers in Flemington and North Melbourne raise serious concerns about the future of genuine public housing. While residents have been promised relocation assistance and the right to return, the proposed redevelopments will only increase "social" housing units by a mere 10%, with the majority of new apartments being privately owned. Critical details regarding land ownership, development types, and the preservation of public housing remain undisclosed. Our submission makes recommendations to address these serious concerns.

Read the submission here

HAAGs submission to this Victorian Parliament inquiry draws on the experiences HAAG hears about the serious lack of homes for older people in regional Victoria. We call for a range of measures to ensure older people in regional Victoria have secure and appropriate housing, including: increasing public and community housing to 10% of all housing stock by 2040; that the Victorian government invest in HAAG’s Home at Last Service to ensure older people across all regional Victoria can receive housing advice and support; and that housing meet accessibility standards to enable people to age in place.

Read our submission here

Our submission draws on the lived experiences of older people applying for, and living in, social housing in NSW. We recommend that trauma informed approaches are taken with everyone applying for social housing and that older people are treated with dignity and respect, and highlight the need for a specialist older persons’ housing information and support service to support older people to navigate the social housing system and establish tenancies.

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Housing stress, insecurity and homelessness are integrally linked to the abuse and mistreatment of older people, and the current housing crisis has exacerbated this. Without access to a safe, secure, affordable home of their own older people can find themselves living in situations – with adult children, relatives, or strangers – where elder abuse is more likely to occur. When elder abuse does occur, a lack of alternative housing options means it is difficult to for older people to escape that abuse.

HAAG have identified three key areas of significant age-related discrimination; Financial discrimination, employment discrimination and housing discrimination.

HAAG acknowledges that some groups may experience compounding discrimination based on LGBTQ+ status, disability status, being culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) or being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background.

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Summer's edition of Older Tenants Voice is packed with colourful photos from our recent events, call outs for for participation in our CALD projects and federal election campaigns, reports on the Retirement Villages Amendments, and a summer special puzzle section with HAAG themed Sudoku, trivia, and a cryptic crossword!

Enjoy the summertime while reading the latest edition of Older Tenants Voice

Housing for the Aged Action Group calls the government’s Retirement Villages Act Amendments Bill, released today after a five-year consultation period, a “mixed bag” that includes important improvements for residents but leaves some major areas of concern inadequately addressed.

Summarising research first published in Not poor enough, not rich enough: older people falling through the housing assistance eligibility gap,  this fact sheet illustrates the scale of the housing affordability crisis affecting older people in Australia, the current lack of housing options that they can afford, as well as proposed solutions.

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The Aged Care Bill aims to legislate a number of changes proposed by the Aged Care Taskforce including Support at Home. Fundamental to receiving support at home is the expectation that older people have a stable home. HAAG makes a number of recommendations to ensure older people in private rental, marginal housing and other precarious housing settings have equitable access to support at home similar to homeowners.

Read our submission