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Melbourne, January: Government must expand older persons’ public housing and support older residents, says Housing for the Aged Action Group.

The Victorian Government has announced the redevelopment of another seven public housing towers across inner Melbourne, all of which are Older Person’s High Rises and home to residents who are over 55 years old. Relocation of residents will begin in July this year. The estates affected are in Kensington, North Melbourne, Prahran, St Kilda and South Melbourne. There are 13 older persons high rises in total, with this announcement affecting over half of them.

HAAG is an organisation supporting older people who are directly experiencing the real-world effects of Australia’s housing affordability crisis. We reject and condemn attempts to blame this crisis on migrants and migration.

Swinburne University and Housing for the Aged Action Group released a new report at Parliament House in Canberra today, showing that across the country, older people are increasingly facing multiple, overlapping forms of housing precarity, with serious impacts on their health and wellbeing. Older renters face the greatest risk, living in housing insecurity in unaffordable and poor condition homes, and older women disproportionately affected.

Since expanding the Home at Last service to the Northern Central Victoria region, Housing for the Aged Action Group is proud to have helped one hundred older people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity to find safe, secure and affordable “forever homes”.

The Commissioner for Residential Tenancies and Social Housing is calling for older people to join her Renters advisory group, and a new group for Retirement Village residents. 

HAAG participated in the first-ever Community-led Housing (CLH) Roundtable in Queensland, led by the Queensland Housing Minister and bringing together government representatives, sector leaders  and academics, alongside Q Shelter, the Housing Older Women Movement (HOWM) and individuals with lived experience of housing insecurity and homelessness.
 

The Australian Capital Territory Parliament has enshrined the right to housing as a human right! HAAG supported this legislation through our submission, and we call on all other states and territories to follow suit.

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