Shane and Pam talk to Fiona York from HAAG about our new Service Navigator program, which will help people navigate the aged care system, as well as HAAG's expanding national project, and what we learnt from our stall at Midsumma Carnival.
A Federation of state COTAs has produced a report called State of the (Older) Nation Report. COTA, with Newgate Research, conducted a nationally-representative online survey lasting 25 minutes on average, completed by 2,562 Australians aged 50 and over, with quotas set for state and territory, metropolitan and regional areas, gender and age. The report is a summary of the information gathered. There seems to be a significant poverty gap – with people renting and experiencing financial hardship doing poorly on a range of indicators. The whole report is available at the link below, but HAAG has created a summary of the responses for older renters.
Shane and Pam from HAAG talk to Pauline from Val's LGBTI Ageing and Aged Care about the specific housing needs of LGBTI older people, and what the state election results mean for older people's housing in Victoria.
While there has been research into the experience of people living in ILUs (HAAG, 2016), there is limited knowledge of the experience of people attempting to gain access to them. It may be inferred however that access is problematic; waitlists are generally years in length, there area large numbers of low-income pensioners in the private rental market, and there are low numbers of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) aged living in them (HAAG, 2016). Obtaining up to date and transparent information about ILUs and other retirement villages is also challenging.
This report looks at whether HAAG clients who are given information about ILUs actually obtain housing in ILUs, and explores some of the structural reasons behind this.
The purpose of this report is to ascertain whether or not the VHR is working as it intended in regards to the process of receiving community housing offers in the case of HAAG’s cohort of older people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. HAAG’s housing workers house approximately 7 people per month in social housing - an umbrella term to mean public housing which is owned by government, and community housing which is owned or managed by not for profit community housing providers. Our workers mainly utilise the VHR and use our contacts and networks within community housing providers to house our clients. In practice though, how many of our clients are being housed in community housing through each process? Has the VHR simplified it and made the process more transparent in relation to community housing providers and how they offer vacancies? This is something the introduction of the VHR aimed to address and this report will focus on.
This newsletter celebrates the tireless work of April Bragg. After 19 years of service, April is retiring, but not without leaving behind a legacy of dedication and passion for housing justice for Older Victorians.
"There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort."