Housing affordability
Gaelle BROAD (Northern Victoria) (18:07): (1415) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Housing and Building. Can you please advise what the government is doing to support older single women struggling to find appropriate, safe and affordable housing in Victoria? I am concerned that single older women are falling through the cracks of the system and literally retiring into poverty. The Grattan Institute recently released a report that found most retirees, particularly older women, live in poverty, including more than three in four single women. One of my constituents is a 72-year-old woman who lost her husband last year. Soon after, she required surgery, which impacted her ability to manage her usual daily tasks. Previously she had done all her own housework and gardening but now finds it difficult and says her current unit is too large for her to manage. She pays $360 per week in rent, is looking to downsize to a smaller unit and is on a single pension of $1300 per fortnight. Private rent costs up to $500 per week for a simple two-bedroom unit in Bendigo, and she simply cannot afford it. She does not qualify for social housing assistance as she has a small amount of savings left by her husband. She is frustrated and concerned that landlords are selling their rentals due to increased government taxes and regulations. This means fewer properties available to rent, and older single women are among those missing out on a home. A real estate agent in Bendigo recently told me that landlords are leaving the market in droves. The cheaper houses they are selling are often being purchased by younger home buyers who cannot afford to build, so they disappear from the rental market altogether.
A group of women in Castlemaine have recently taken matters into their own hands in a bid to secure safe, affordable housing. The Bendigo Advertiser reports that women in the co-housing movement have secured a council permit to construct a sustainable joint housing project on a 5-acre property. WINC, as it is known, was designed to offer:
… safety, community and sustainability for an age demographic which is fast becoming the most at risk of homelessness.
Their project is in the early stages with an approved planning application for a 31-home co-housing project which will be a mix of small homes and social housing, helping women who may have some assets but not enough to purchase a home outright.
Women’s Housing Limited, a statewide not-for-profit organisation that provides low-cost housing to women at risk of homelessness, reports that women and children make up an increasingly large percentage of those in need of affordable housing. Their website says:
Those groups that are likely to experience housing stress include older women over 55 and women who are forced to leave their home because of family violence.
I look forward to the minister’s response on this important issue.