Publications

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

A series of stories published by the ABC this week highlighted unfair fees, confusing contracts and poor treatment of residents living in retirement villages. Government must act now to protect retirement village residents from exploitation and eviction.

HAAG makes a number of recommendations to ensure the 'Plan for Victoria' addresses the future needs of older people to have access to safe, secure and affordable housing.

Read our submission

HAAG recommends that the Federal Government identify financial products and banking options to prevent older people in the lowest income households falling out of homeownership due to mortgage stress, as well as funding the construction of public and community housing for older people who are not likely to find market based housing

Read our submission

Data shows that over the last ten years, housing circumstances for older people in Victoria have gotten worse. We need these measures to prevent more older people from experiencing homelessness.

Read our recommendations

Improving housing options and preventing homelessness for a growing number of older people at risk of or experiencing homelessness as they age will be discussed today when Ministers, housing experts and people with lived experience of the housing crisis come together at Victorian parliament.

HAAG welcomes the opportunity to provide input into National Housing and Homelessness Plan Bill 2024. We appreciate Senator David Pocock, Kylea Tink MP and other members for their efforts bring this Bill forward and echo the support from the community sector organisations. Among other things, the submission below outlines the housing and homelessness related challenges of older people and the need to specifically recognise their needs.

Read the submission here

East Gippsland Social and Affordable housing submission 

HAAG’s recent research has found that over the last ten years, the housing circumstances for older Queenslanders is getting worse. Read our policy recommendations and download our guide to meeting with your candidates and MP's

Public housing is an appropriate housing option for older people, as rents are capped at 25% of income, and it provides security of tenure. In September 2023, the Victorian Government announced plans to “retire and redevelop” the public housing towers over the coming decades.

Our winter edition of Older Tenant's Voice 

Read the newsletter here

It's extrememly hard for older people on low incomes to find affordable rentals. Its even harder for LGBTIQA+ older people. 

Read the article from Parity here

Housing for the Aged Action Group's Home at Last service is the first point of call of many older women living in Victoria who find themselves on the brink of, or experiencing, homelessness. 

The power imbalance between tenant and landlord in Australia in 2024 is well known. But for people living in retirement housing there is often an even greater power imbalance between them and their housing provider. 

Read the article from Parity here

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