Tackling old-age homelessness

A leading seniors’ organisation has warned that greater numbers of older Australians will become homeless without serious preventative efforts to identify and support those who are at risk.

The message from COTA Over 50s came in response to the Federal Government’s Green Paper on homelessness, Which Way Home?

The paper found that there are currently about 6000 homeless Australians over the age of 65.

COTA Executive Director Dr Geoffrey Bird said many of these cases could have been avoided with proper intervention.

“Timely provision of services for low-level support needs is infinitely less costly to both taxpayers and the persons concerned than responding to their needs once they become homeless,” said Dr Bird

“Slipping into homelessness produces an unravelling of a person’s resources, diminishes resilience, introduces new stresses and compounds existing ones.”
 
COTA warned that the number of older people needing rental accommodation is set to increase dramatically in coming decades.

“Without adequate public housing or affordable private rental housing available the likelihood of homelessness rises significantly,” said Dr Bird.

The Green Paper contained three possible approaches to homelessness, including targeting distinct ‘streams’, such as youth and people escaping domestic violence; developing a revamped version of the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program SAAP; and scaling back SAAP to crisis interventions while improving mainstream preventative services.

COTA described the three-choice menu as a “rather restrictive approach” but said the third option was preferable.

“The principle of prevention must be a pre-eminent consideration in policy formulation and service-delivery strategies around homelessness,” said Dr Bird.