The homelessness crisis affecting Australia’s older women

Abstract

‘Having to ask for somewhere to live, it’s difficult indeed’: Single, female, homeless. Australia’s shameful crisis.

Older women are the fastest-growing cohort of homeless people in Australia today. And for many, it’s an unexpected life shock that tipped them into destitution.

Currently, more than 330,000 single women over the age of 45 are living in a state of economic distress – that is, spending more than 30 per cent of their gross income just keeping a roof over their heads – with as many as 45 per cent of them earning the minimum wage or less. Additionally, reports the Career Development Association of Australia, in 2019, 273,000 work positions were made redundant, a 45 per cent surge on the figures for 2017.