Her pale blue eyes filled with tears as she described how she became homeless and her horror of what might happen if she cannot find a permanent place to live. .
“I would be happy if I could put some bangs on my head,” said Faye, pausing to correct herself. “ONE safe roof over my head. “
At 72, her great-grandmother never thought she would be here – in a bare-walled apartment on Australia’s Gold Coast emergency shelter – but life hasn’t turned out the way she had hoped.
She once owned her own home, had a husband and two children, but didn’t have enough savings to cope with the unexpected events in later life: poor health, unemployment, abuse, divorce.
Faye, who is using an alias for privacy reasons, is part of the fastest growing group of homeless people in Australia: women over 55. Older women made up a relatively small percentage of the 116,000 people who reported being homeless on the night of the last National Census in 2016. Most were young and lived in “severely crowded” homes. important” – homes will need at least four extra bedrooms to accommodate the number of people living there.
But at the time, researchers noted a rapid rise in the number of older women experiencing homelessness – a 31 per cent increase in five years – and experts say there’s no sign of a trend. This has slowed down. If anything, it has been made worse by job losses during the pandemic, soaring rent costs and soaring inflation.
For decades, women worldwide earned less than men – a disparity known as the gender pay gap. Now, with less savings in retirement, thousands of Australian women are finding themselves without a safe space to sleep at night. On Saturday, Australians will vote in a federal election – and housing has emerged as a key issue.
How a life falls apart
There is nothing unusual about Faye’s life. She married a man, they bought a house and had two children. But when the children were in elementary school, she said her husband “played her” – cheated – and moved in with another woman.
Faye tried to fulfill her job as a single mother, but eventually she and her children had to move in with her parents. “I ended up selling the house. And he took most of it anyway,” she said of her ex-husband.
Then she met another man who was unemployed and bought him a business. Faye did not get the money back. When her next partner turns violent, she runs away, leaving everything behind.
Faye was supported by several family members, but no one had the space to take her in. Also, she doesn’t want to become a stressor. “You know, you don’t want to be a burden to people because you’re older,” she said. “You can’t stay with people. You just can’t. You’re getting in the way.”
Low interest rates have pushed house prices in Australia to record highs. On the Gold Coast, where Faye lives, some landlords have sold for cash, forcing long-term tenants to relocate. The coastal city, south of Brisbane, has become a popular destination for people moving north from the southern states for larger Covid outbreaks. Recent floods have also increased demand for accommodation.
The rental market is tighter than ever, and the likes of Faye, early pension recipients – close to AU$1,000 ($697) a fortnight for those aged 66 and six months or more – struggling to afford rent in the private sector.
As of 2021, the average wait time for social housing on Australia’s Gold Coast is more than 3.5 years.
Elise Klein, a senior lecturer in public policy at the Australian National University, said while most Australians would save for retirement by paying into an employer-required scheme. contribute to their pension fund, says Elise Klein, a senior lecturer in public policy at the Australian National University, says many women don’t have enough savings of their own to support themselves in retirement. .
According to the Agency for Gender Equality at Work, women in Australia earn an average of $255.30 ($178) a week less than men. Time away from work to care for their children also limits their retirement savings.
Some older women can rely on their partner for financial support, but many don’t have that option. “It’s not a situation where a woman’s choice to be a single woman is the determining sign of whether she will have a house over her head,” Klein said. “But it is a major cause of homelessness, because of the way in which the economy is structured to completely undervalue unpaid care work.”
Turn off the market
In Australia, owning your own home can mean the difference between a comfortable retirement and homelessness, according to research from the Grattan Institute independent consultancy.
“Half of renters retire in poverty compared with less than 10% of homeowners,” said Brendan Coates, director of the institute’s economic policy program.
Coates added that after a divorce, fewer women than men buy another home, in part because banks evaluate loans based on deposit size and ongoing income. As women earn less, they are more likely to be offered a smaller loan – if any – so some have stopped working in the market.
Older renters could be in trouble if they lose their jobs before retirement age 66 years and six months, Coates added. They may then have to live on unemployment benefits, which are even lower than the pensions of the elderly.
Faye retired early after suffering a brain aneurysm that required surgery in his early 60s. By the time she recovered, she was too weak to stand for hours as a retail assistant. Today, her most valuable possession is her car, but now she hopes to sell it for AU$2,000. ($1,393) to help pay for meals and other expenses. Partly as a result of the war in Ukraine, inflation in Australia is at a 20-year high and the cost of most everyday goods is rising, including fuel.
Vote for change?
The housing crisis has plagued Australia for years as house prices have skyrocketed, making it harder for people to save for a down payment.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison entered the final week of his election campaign on Sunday with a promise to let some people dip into their retirement savings to enter the market. Mr. Anthony Albanese’s Labor rival said his government would, if elected, put an extra deposit on a small number of first-time buyers.
Both policies make headlines, but their advertising is less important to female voters. Morrison said, if re-elected, his government would allow working parents to share up to 20 weeks of paid leave. Albanese is promising to increase childcare subsidies to attract more women back to work. Both are providing more support to victims of domestic and domestic violence, although only Labor has pledged to support the new 10-day leave policy for victims of domestic violence.
Morrison has hailed his party’s past success in reducing gender pay disparities, while Albanese said it would be easier for him to force companies to pay women more.
Whoever wins Saturday’s election, women’s rights campaigners and charity workers say more needs to be done to level the playing field – and not just through policies.
“There is still a systemic view of who is the main breadwinner in the family,” said Cherylee Treloar, CEO of Footprints, a nonprofit community group that supports people at risk of homelessness. family and who can be financially independent. “The notion that women can be financially independent is still something of an anti-psychotic in Australia.”
A year on, movement co-founder Janine Hendry says politicians are still not doing enough to tackle the backlog. “We’re talking about gender pay disparities, but we’re not really talking about the overall economic insecurity that’s happening to women because of inequality,” she said. This includes women like Faye.
Back on the Gold Coast, Faye said she plans to vote in the election despite not having a fixed address – voting is mandatory in Australia. She wasn’t sure who she was going to vote for, but she had a simple request.
“I just want someone who will do what’s best for the country and for the people.”
Credit
Illustration: Natalie Leung and Claire Manibog
Story Editor: Eliza Anyangwe and Meera Senthilingam
