After 25 years in her Melbourne rental, Louise Wilksch has just two more weeks to find a new home.
The 71-year-old was sent an eviction letter at the start of August asking her to leave her Brunswick East bungalow – and she says it has “hit me for six”.
“I’m not complaining, the rent hasn’t gone up in that time – I’m paying $900 a month. I’ve been lucky – but now suddenly I’m not lucky.
“When I recovered from getting the notice, I looked at the commercial rental market, and it was obvious there was no way I was going to find anything.”
Louise is one of a growing number of Australians over 55 who are facing insecure housing situations.
About 19,300 Australians aged 55 or over are currently homeless, and 440,000 older households will be unable to find or afford suitable housing by 2031, research from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute shows.
Fiona York, the executive officer of Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG) says this number could increase.
“Everyone knows that Australia’s population is ageing,” York says. “But there are disproportionate increases in insecure housing – it is growing faster than just the population growth.”
HAAG’s research shows the total number of people aged 55 or over with a mortgage debt is 1,504,793, a 63% increase in 10 years.
There’s a decrease in older people living in community and public housing, meaning more – almost 700,000 people – are in private rentals. Of those, only 19% are paying 30% or less of their income on rent.
“It is the least secure housing tenure,” York says.
“The entirety of the Australian retirement system is built on the assumption or the expectation that older people will be owning a home by the time they’re retired,” she says.
“But that is increasingly not the case.”
‘Housing is no longer seen as where people live’
Staring down the barrel of homelessness, Wilksch has launched a campaign to help her find a new place close by.
Wilksch, who is on a disability pension, designed a small flyer explaining her situation and letterboxed her neighbours. It’s been shared across the local social networks and over Instagram.
But to Wilksch, a home is more than a house.
Her sense of what is home stretches beyond her Californian bungalow style house to the strip garden she planted from clippings up to Ceres, the community park where she sells handmade vintage goods at the market every Saturday. Brunswick East is where she works, where her friends are and where she wants to spend the rest of her life.
“It’s sent me into shock. I couldn’t eat for a few days and then I got a really bad cold. I think from the stress.”
Wilksch was told her landlord wants to occupy the property. Wilksch’s age means she would be put on the priority list for public housing, but the average wait time is 20 months.
She is hoping the flyers help.
“There’s been an attitude change. What [John] Howard did with those two policies, changing negative gearing and halving capital gains tax, both of those to me changed the way housing is seen – and it’s just wrong,” she says.
“Housing is no longer seen as where people live. It’s seen as an investment.”
Anglicare’s recent 2023 rental affordability snapshot revealed that 0.4% of private rentals are affordable for on the age pension and 0.1% are affordable for those on DSP.
Priced out in retirement
It was by complete luck that Lyn Bailey found community housing – and it happened just in time.
The 75-year-old never expected to be homeless – but after going through a divorce in 2007 she entered the private market. When she was priced out of that because of her retirement, she found herself homeless – living in house sits or with her daughter.
“When I was living with my daughter, and I was house sitting, there is no way I would say to anyone, ‘I’m homeless,’” she says.
“I mean, I was doing that because I was homeless. But my friends I’ve known for the last 40 years had no idea what was happening.”
After her daughter’s lease ended, Bailey started looking again – and by chance – came across an advertisement for community housing. In New South Wales there are about 45,000 community housing dwellings, with 28,000 households in them.
“I was just very, very fortunate,” says Bailey.
In NSW, 56,000 households are on the waiting list for social housing, many of them waiting for more than 10 years for a permanent home, Homelessness NSW CEO Amy Hains says, adding that there needs to be “urgent and sustained investment in social housing in NSW”.
“[One] significant barrier for older people seeking social housing is the very high threshold for priority access,” she says.
“A person has to be 80 years old to be eligible for priority social housing, which, when you consider that this is only a few years short of the average life expectancy, appears to be a policy motivated by economics rather than to meet a clear need.”
• This article was amended on 27 August 2023 after it incorrectly referred to a “Canadian bungalow style house”. It was changed to say “Californian bungalow style house”.
