A rising proportion of the estimated 700,000-plus older Australians who live in rental accommodation are falling into poverty or homelessness as the country’s housing crisis worsens.

It is an oft-forgotten aspect of the housing crisis, with the spotlight often falling on younger generations who are effectively locked out of Australia’s booming market.

“It really is an unprecedented level of crisis,” says Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG) Executive Officer Fiona York. “Our staff are hearing stories every day from older people who up until recently have been able to manage living in private rentals – that’s just not the case anymore.”

HAAG’s research has found that the number of older people living in private rentals has risen 73 per cent over a decade, with nearly one-quarter of a million on low incomes struggling to pay unaffordable rents.

“If you're 55-60 years old and you're in private rental, you need to start making a plan because a lot of people, especially older women, have very low superannuation balances and they're just not going to be in a position to be able to age in place.”

Renting is one of the least secure forms of accommodation given weak legislation, which is also hard to enforce. HAAG helps people over 50 break this cycle and move into affordable long-term housing. Its support includes helping people navigate a complex housing system, finding out what government support they’re eligible for, filling in housing applications, and even showing people where local public transport and medical support are located once they move.

But it will take many years to fundamentally solve the issue of housing insecurity, despite a more recent focus on the issue by Federal and State governments.

“The focus of government is often on the crisis,” Fiona says. “So they're looking at temporary short-term solutions like crisis accommodation for people that are visibly homeless.

“But we're explaining there’s a shift that's been going on for years – we're seeing people that are fronting up at services that often don't even realise they're at risk. They're going to be falling off the cliff into crisis.”

HAAG also provides research and encourages governments to provide more safe, secure and affordable housing. This would include reforming property tax breaks, which have shifted housing from a human right and into an investment asset, as well as boosting investment in social housing.

HAAG’s team, which includes older Australians with lived experience of navigating the housing system, is now looking to expand its Home at Last service to regional areas. Each year it provides more than 1500 people with information about their housing options and aged care, and helps 130-160 people a year obtain long-term, affordable housing.

“We've got a philanthropic-funded project in Shepparton that employs three part-time workers to be able to support older people who are at risk of homelessness and it's going really well. We'd like to be able to do that all over Victoria and all over Australia if we could.”

HAAG has received support from a number of philanthropic trusts managed by Equity Trustees.

To support HAAG’s work contact haag@oldertenants.org.au or go to https://www.oldertenants.org.au/donate-to-housing-for-the-aged-action-group.