Inquiry into homelessness for older Australians faces confronting submissions

Inquiry into homelessness for older Australians faces confronting submissions
Image: Bruce Bellingham

By AMBER GRIFFIN

A rising rate of senior Australians experiencing homelessness has triggered a parliamentary inquiry into a housing crisis in NSW for those over 55. With the inquiry going ahead this week, a committee has heard a multitude of stories from older Australian’s who have faced insecure housing.

The Tenant’s Union of NSW (TUNSW) provided evidence to the inquiry on the rising rate of homelessness. Also addressing the committee was the Community Housing Industry Association NSW (CHIA NSW), who found that NSW has seen a 43 percent increase in the number of people aged 55 and over experiencing homelessness from 2011 to 2016.

Head of Policy at CHIA NSW Caitlin McDowell said that the rising cost of rent means many senior Australian’s are going without food, medicine or heating.

“These people should not have to pay the price for decades of severe underinvestment in social and affordable housing by successive governments, and it is not too late to help them.”

Tenant’s union says interventions into crisis only require ‘political will’

CEO of TUNSW Leo Patterson Ross spoke on a panel at the inquiry in parliament, providing suggestions for interventions to give older Australians access to stable housing.

The suggested interventions include the development of genuinely affordable housing, reforming NSW tenancy law to ensure greater stability and security for people who rent their homes, and providing adequate support for older people who are renters.

“These interventions are not fancy, nor particularly complicated. They simply require the political will to implement” Patterson Ross said.

A spokesperson for TUNSW said that research into the issue of “older renters’ housing precarity” has been growing since 2015.

When asked by City Hub what they hope the inquiry will achieve, the  TUNSW said that their hope is that the Inquiry will make recommendations to the government, highlighting the urgent need for the delivery of new and genuinely affordable public and community housing.

“Additionally, we hope that the Committee will recognise the critical need for removing sections 84 and 85 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2010, allowing for “no grounds” evictions and recommend introducing “reasonable grounds” terminations of tenancy contracts instead.”

Inquiry submission provides confronting case study

Submissions in the inquiry reveal the issue of the NSW housing crisis on personal levels. One submission from a 69-year-old woman facing homelessness, whose name was excluded for privacy reasons, says she has been struggling to access housing for many years.

She was made redundant in 2015, and began drawing on her superannuation to manage her expenses, after struggling to find work. The woman was forced to leave Sydney due to high rent costs, and move to a caravan park in a regional area.

The inquiry is currently undergoing three hearings this week on July 18, 19 and 21. It has received 90 submissions from individuals and organisations.

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