ABOUT THE PODCAST
The House Well Age Well Podcast highlights housing activism by older people across Australia. Join Jeff Fiedler in conversation with inspirational older people as they discuss their personal housing journeys and their fight for housing justice that aims to make a real difference to the lives of older people on low incomes in Australia. Organisations, individuals and academics that support the aims of housing justice for older people will also participate in the podcast.
Older people have the right to access long term, affordable and well-designed housing so they can live a comfortable life, in good health and enjoy being an active member of society.
Background to the Podcast
Older people have become the fastest growing group experiencing homelessness in Australia.
But it doesn’t have to be this way!
Facing homelessness in older age is particularly challenging for the escalating number of older people trying to survive in the private rental market. Faced with high rents on an age pension, no security of tenure and often in poor housing conditions, older people’s health can quickly deteriorate due to the poverty and stress caused by these circumstances. They also face discrimination as their home is often not adequate to receive aged care services and may be forced prematurely into residential aged care.
Some uncomfortable housing facts:
- Homelessness for older people is growing faster than any other age group. The fastest growing cohorts affected by homelessness over the past six years have been older people aged 55-64 (up 15%) and those aged 65+ (up by 30%)(Homelessness Australia)
- Declining public and social housing stock means that households that would previously have found a secure home in social housing now increasingly struggle with affordability and insecurity in the private rental sector. Social housing represents 4.1% of all housing, compared to 4.8% in 2011. There are 184,000 people on the social housing waiting list (AIHW 2023).
- 699,561 people aged 55 and over rented from a private landlord in 2021. This is a 73% increase (295,688 more people) since 2011, and more than double the rate of increase in the number of people in this age group in the population (34%) in the same period (Stone et al 2023).
- The number of older people living in very-low (Q1) and low income (Q2) households that were paying unaffordable rents in the private rental sector in 2019-20 was a total of 227,565. This number increased by 52 per cent in the decade from 2009-10 to 2019-20, from a previous total of 149,528 (Stone et al 2023).
- Housing is a well-established determinant of health with extensive research showing poor housing conditions to be associated with mental and physical ill health and there has been a growing recognition in international policy that housing is an important aspect of preventing or reducing long-term care needs, and of increasing independence among older people.
- Older people in Australia prefer to age in place and, as the Productivity Commission (2015) noted, ‘Older people’s desire to age in place aligns with governments’ fiscal goals — in most cases, assistance for home care is considerably less costly than for residential aged care’ (PC 2015, p. 2). The capacity to age in place is put at risk by housing insecurity. The lack of appropriate and affordable housing that is supportive of an ageing population who are not homeowners also has broader serious consequences for the wellbeing and life expectancy of older people, impacting their ability to live a decent and valued life (Faulkner, et al. 2023).
ABOUT Jeff Fiedler
Jeff has been a housing campaigner for 40 years.
After working for many years on public housing estates and in local government, Jeff then worked at Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG) for 24 years. At HAAG he developed a Tenancy Advice Service, introduced a Retirement Housing Service and with April Bragg, created the Home at Last – Older Persons Housing Information and Support Service. Jeff also established, with a group of older tenants across Australia, the National Alliance of Seniors for Housing (NASH) that links older people together on Facebook.
In collaboration with Dr Debbie Faulkner at the University of South Australia, Jeff was successful in obtaining funding from The Wicking Trust to conduct the Ageing on the Edge – Older Persons Homelessness Prevention Project that worked across Australia between 2016-2020 to increase awareness of the plight facing low-income older renters. The project produced four reports across South Australia, New South Wales, Western Australia and Queensland and established working groups in each state that, in some cases, have continued lobbying for more public and social housing for older people. In particular the project had a key aim to introduce support services for older people across Australia. After producing a report in Queensland this was successful with a service established in Brisbane and a funding commitment from a not-for-profit agency in NSW. More work is required across Australia to ensure this strategy is fully implemented.
Listen to the Latest Episode
Episode One – The destruction of a public housing community at Millers Point, Sydney, Part 1
This is a two-part program about the scandal that occurred in Sydney between 2014-2018 where 580 public tenants were forced to relocate from their generations-long homes at Millers Point and the Sirius Building right on Sydney Harbour
