Homelessness for older women has risen by an astounding 30% in just 5 years. This is just the tip of the iceberg for older women’s increasing housing precariousness and poverty. In today’s analysis, Myfan Jordan (@Myfan_Jordan) of Per Capita (@PerCapita) shares findings from her recently-released research report, Mutual Appreciation: a social innovation thinkpiece. This is the third in a series exploring older women’s experiences of poverty to mark Anti-Poverty Week; research participant ‘Lorraine’ told her story earlier in the week, and we started out with an analysis of how older women are suffering on the Newstart Allowance.

Older women and housing

Australia is a country in which women still experience significant barriers to economic security, barriers that can accumulate across the life-course to result in a particularly acute impact in older age.

The persistent gender pay gap, lower salaries in feminised industries, and irregular work patterns shaped by unpaid caregiving all contribute to an emerging pattern of gendered ageing, whereby Australian women on average retire with around 47% less superannuation than men - those lucky enough to have any super at all, that is.

These structural barriers, combined with a highly commodified housing market, mean homeownership has increasingly become a privilege, and one many women are locked out of.

Home ownership rates for older people are steadily declining, with mortgage debt blown out by 600%. Women tenants dominate the private rental sector and, shockingly, women over 55 are the fastest growing group at risk of homelessness.

The market responds with a segmented approach - ‘lifestyle’ villages, downsized units or the dreaded residential care – often resulting in housing options that, perversely, encourage social isolation and loneliness.

Within this landscape, Per Capita set out to explore how co-living might offer an alternative for older women, not solely through pooled resources, but more broadly.

What we found

Using peer-led interviews and participatory ‘co-design’ workshops, we tested three models of cooperative ageing: small-scale cohousing, larger-scale cohousing and a reciprocal volunteering model called timebanking.

The study attracted women living in a diversity of housing types and tenures, from renters and mortgagees to women experiencing homelessness. The financial circumstances of participants were also varied – from insecure workers to age pensioners, and even a participant with ‘a nest egg’ of $100,000 - while their ages ranged from early 50s to mid-80s.

Yet within this diversity, we found a marked commonality in ‘push factors’ for disadvantage. Nearly all the women interviewed had contributed large chunks of their life to unpaid family care, and in volunteer roles supporting their local communities. Many identified unpaid work as having strongly impeded their availability for ongoing paid employment, and consequently their capacity to accrue superannuation and other financial assets.

Around three-quarters of those interviewed had been single or sole parents, an experience often characterised by lack of financial support from their children’s fathers, and even ‘sexually transmitted debt’. As a result, patterns of expenditure had necessarily been short-term and family-focused, prioritising daily over long-term need. Many women had been pushed into insecure housing as a result of family breakdown.

The single women involved in the research described having been satisfied with private rental earlier in life, but over time, and with the rise of rental costs pushing them from known neighbourhoods and decent standards of accommodation, they now felt a need for greater security of tenure. Many feared eviction or rent hikes could push them into homelessness.

Even interviewees fortunate enough to own their homes felt insecure. For women in their fifties and sixties, anxiety about maintaining an income sufficient to meet their future needs was marked: how would they would pay off their mortgage debt? How could they continue to afford rent? What would happen if they became unwell?

Even those with adult children nearby felt ill-prepared and under-resourced for older age.

Ideal housing isn’t confined to a roof over your head

A striking commonality in the research centred on participant’s attitudes to housing: to a notion of ‘home’ that seemed at odds with structures of individualised ownership. As our peer researchers explored cohousing with participants, and what an ideal ‘fourth age’[1] might look like if they could ‘wave a magic wand’, a clear theme emerged.

Older women want secure housing, but they also want community - “a place characterised by neighbourliness and networks of support and friendship.” Innovative community housing models could deliver on these goals while also remaining affordable. Phot… — Older women want secure housing, but they also want community - “a place characterised by neighbourliness and networks of support and friendship.” Innovative community housing models could deliver on these goals while also remaining affordable. Photo by **Tirachard Kumtanom** from **Pexels**

While safe, secure and age-appropriate housing remained important, for a large majority of our interviewees it became apparent that the ideal housing experience wasn’t predicated on bricks and mortar alone. In fact, very few participants described a traditional model of ‘ageing in place’ in the family home.

Instead, women articulated that they wanted housing which gave them a sense of belonging to a community, a place characterised by neighbourliness and networks of support and friendship. This desire reflected the characteristics of the UK model of older women’s cohousing we had explored during the research – a self-governed community of private accommodation united through common space and activities.

Most interestingly, and with particularly implications for policymakers, is that more than 95% of the women we interviewed indicated they would move to access such a community.

“I’d move in tomorrow!” - Gabrielle, 56, farmhand

Oh god, I’d love it! I hate living by myself! I mean we all like our privacy, but it just gets so lonely…“ - Jan 61, public housing

With Australia’s aged care and retirement policies underpinned by the assumption that the majority of older people are home owners, and that they prefer to age in place, our research suggests a need to rethink ‘homeownership’ and traditional structures of housing for older age.

The women we spoke with seemed particularly attracted to the principles of self-governance that characterise cohousing: networks of decision-making and shared purpose. They wanted opportunities to contribute skills developed over decades of volunteering - of contributing to the social fabric of their local communities.

“The whole idea of sharing resources, having their own place but being in a community where they don’t feel isolated, where people look out for each other, where they can share skills and feel useful and valued.” - Felicity 54, private rental

Housing has a unique capacity to drive good outcomes in older age, beyond simply providing shelter. As once-familiar suburbs change beyond recognition, and families and friends migrate away, older Australians seem less committed to staying put and more concerned about finding the social community that will support them to have a thriving and inclusive older age.

The women we interviewed for Mutual Appreciation told us that social isolation and loneliness were key concerns for ageing – even above poor health. We met with women who were trying to pursue housing alternatives, but Australia’s siloed and abstruse planning infrastructure makes this difficult.

Governments incentivise developer-driven “affordable supply”, but arguably our investor’s market pays dividends for the few rather than the many. Housing inaffordability and homelessness continue to grow for all age cohorts, with housing for older women a particularly concerning issue.

So Australia needs to rethink both ageing in place and our focus on bricks and mortar as the real housing asset. But how do we do this?

Housing innovations can provide community and affordability

Examples emerging abroad suggest some directions. Community-led housing approaches in the UK, for example, are showing how governments can incentivise grassroots urban planning, and community-based participatory planning is also proving a key pivot from which alternatives such as cohousing and pocket neighbourhoods are supported to grow.

Housing is a basic human right and as such, we need to involve our local communities far more meaningfully in how it is developed and delivered, with a variety of housing types and tenures reflecting the diversification of our communities.

Closely connected, vibrant communities can support us to thrive across the life-course.

Our research suggests that policy makers would be well advised to develop and prioritise ‘aged housing’ models that recognise the role of the home in fostering social relationships and promoting well-being: that is, housing that is strongly networked into a supportive community, in which residents can access meaningful social roles and relationships.

It seems that it takes a village not just to grow up well, but to grow old well too.

[1] The 4th Age is described in Mutual Appreciation as a putative time beyond active third ageing, when women would need regular or daily support to remain living in the community.

Per Capita’s recent research publication – Mutual Appreciation: A social innovation thinkpiece – explores older women’s experiences of disadvantage and how cohousing and other forms of cooperative support can improve their experiences in older age.

This post is part of the Women's Policy Action Tank initiative to analyse government policy using a gendered lens. View our other policy analysis pieces here.

Cooperative ageing: Innovative solutions to older women’s precarious housing