Federal Campaigns

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.

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.
 

We wanted to take a moment to thank all of you, our members, for the work that you did in the lead up to the election. Sending letters to candidates, meeting members of Parliament, speaking up about older people’s housing. It is your voices and the stories we hear every day from our clients that makes our advocacy powerful.
 

HAAG welcomes the Prime Minister’s election night commitments to ensuring that ‘no-one is left behind’, and to ‘looking after older Australians’. One of the most effective foundations to achieve this will be to ensure that everyone has a secure home they can afford. Distressingly, increasing numbers of older people are prevented from achieving this basic human need. They are at risk of homelessness, or are going without food, essential medications, heating and cooling, and healthcare just to keep a roof over their head.

After decades of campaigning for safe, secure and affordable housing for older people, the housing crisis is finally getting the attention it deserves in this election campaign. Labor, the Coalition and the Greens are all vying to woo voters with pledges they claim will improve the affordability of housing. HAAG is pleased that housing has been such a prominent issue in the election, but we are deeply disappointed that that the unprecedented housing crisis facing older people has not been addressed.

In the lead up to the next Federal Election which will be called in 2025, there is real momentum for change to address older person's homelessness across the country. Our voices are powerful and the housing crisis gripping Australia will be a key election issue.

We encourage you to contact your local federal representative and other local candidates to request meetings to talk about the issue of older person's homelessness and what needs to change. Local members are often keen to meet their constituents, especially when there is an upcoming election. They are interested in local concerns and with the right information, encouragement and clear recommendations, you can be a champion for older people and their housing issues.

Find out more about how you can get involved