We all need secure and affordable housing to be safe and healthy as we age. But increasingly, older people cannot afford to rent a home, and risk becoming homelessness. That’s why HAAG stands up for the rights of older people, whether they are homeless, live in private rental, public or community housing, retirement housing, or have a mortgage. Membership is free and it’s the best way to support, keep in touch and get involved with HAAG in our fight for housing justice.

Download our Membership brochure or contact us if you would like printed copies to distribute in your community

The Aged Care Bill aims to legislate a number of changes proposed by the Aged Care Taskforce including Support at Home. Fundamental to receiving support at home is the expectation that older people have a stable home. HAAG makes a number of recommendations to ensure older people in private rental, marginal housing and other precarious housing settings have equitable access to support at home similar to homeowners.

Read our submission

We are particularly concerned by the suggestion that no person under 65 should be eligible for aged care services in any circumstance. If implemented, this would exclude prematurely aged homeless people, or those at risk of homelessness, from accessing specialist aged care services like residential care and Support at Home.

Our clients often age prematurely as a result of cumulative and persistent disadvantage and have one or more age-related conditions. While these people are not aged 65+, they require access to aged care services earlier than the rest of the population. Many of our clients are not eligible for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

More than half a million Australians aged 55 or over are at risk of falling through the cracks, according to a new Swinburne report launched today, that shows they are neither poor enough to qualify for effective and accessible housing assistance nor wealthy enough to secure housing independently as they age.

The research identifies and estimates the incidence of people aged 55 or older who are at risk of ‘non-supported housing precarity,’ referred to here as the Missing Middle. This target group includes older Australians who are ‘not poor enough’ to qualify for – or be in receipt of - current housing assistance but ‘not wealthy enough’ to have sufficient income or assets to secure housing, both now and as they age.

Read the infographic summary

Read the full report

This World Homeless Day, the Victorian Public Tenants Association (VPTA) is calling on the state government to urgently address the social housing crisis by committing to the delivery of at least 60,000 new social housing homes, a strong proportion of which must be public housing homes, over the next decade.

Read a round up of the recent media exposés into Retirement Housing, hear from residents at the Flemington Public Housing estate about their views on the State Labor Governments plan to demolish their towers, see photos and reports from all our recent events, and find out how you can get involved in one of of our working groups or campaigns. All this and more in the latest Older Tenants Voice