Finding solutions for elderly at high risk of homelessness
LOS ANGELES: The current priority is to find solutions for the elderly who are at high risk of homelessness.
Nearly 20 years ago, Marie Sillars’ marriage broke down.
Living in West Ryde, about 16km northwest of Sydney’s CBD, she had just turned 50, had been a stay-at-home mother to three children and never worked.
After the divorce, she suffered bouts of homelessness and was in rental distress when she found accommodation.
Ms Sillars temporarily stayed on a friend’s couch but the house was overcrowded. She moved to a private rental unit, struggled to afford it on welfare payments and was placed on a public housing waitlist.
“I was just not prepared for the outside world because I stayed at home raising kids. I didn’t have anything of my own,” the now 69-year-old said.
“I had to go back on to a (public housing) list and I knew it was going to be ages. Some weeks it was either food or medication. The rent had to be paid so you’re under constant stress.”
She moved to the NSW central coast, to Woy Woy, because she believed it would be cheaper but ultimately she was too far from her family and attempted suicide.
“I was so isolated, there was no nowhere to go. My mental health was not good. And I just couldn’t see a way out,” she said.
Ms Sillars was supported by staff at the Gosford hospital and after a minister intervened following eight years on the public housing waitlist, she was placed in a community-oriented home in Sydney near her family.
Determined to improve services for elderly people – particularly women – who face homelessness, Ms Sillars backs calls by Uniting for the NSW state government to set up a crisis response and early intervention service for people older than 55 who are at risk of homelessness.
Uniting says the new service should be based on a Victorian program called Home at Last, which targets older people on a low income who are at risk of homelessness by giving them advice on affordable housing options and advocating for people in retirement housing.
As well, Uniting says, the government should investigate lowering the priority age for social housing eligibility from 80 to 55 as a priority.
The two responses to homelessness are among 40 recommendations coming out of a NSW parliamentary inquiry into homelessness for people over 55.
Uniting general manager of advocacy and external relations Emma Maiden said some older people might be at risk of homelessness if they lost their job and struggled to find another; in the case of women, it could be due to divorce or domestic violence that had occurred later in life.
“This is not an intractable problem that government can’t solve. It is within government’s power to prioritise its spending and its programs to solve the problem,” Ms Maiden said.
“If you can get give someone safe, stable, secure, appropriate housing, you can then begin to tackle other problems they might have in relation to health or employment or other issues.”
She said current programs don’t address the needs of this particular cohort.
“Unlike other people that are experiencing homelessness, older people tend to be a bit in denial about the fact that they are at risk,” she said.
“Often people whose circumstances really change … in that older age group frequently don‘t have any history of interactions with welfare and other support services.
“And so they don’t think, you know, to reach out to those services to help support them.”
The number of people above the age of 55 who are homeless in NSW increased by 42 per cent between 2011 and 2016, according to census data.
There are about 50,000 applicants on the NSW social housing waitlist, with 15,800 aged over 55.
The government is due to respond to the recommendations in January.