By Frances Mulcahy (she/her)
This story is a composite of the real lives of two white women of the ‘boomer’ generation (names changed).
Rosemary (Rosie), was born in 1950, to post-war, immigrant parents of European stock. She had a gentle childhood and married at age 20. By age 28, she had three daughters under the age of five. She was a stay at home mum, a life she reports as being fulfilling. Her husband proclaimed fundamentalist Christianity and ruled the home with a religious iron fist. In 1994, after years of psychological abuse, the marriage ended. Only the youngest daughter remained at home at that time. The following year she moved out. Rosie was on the ‘dole’ – she was living hand to mouth, looking for a job. Her middle daughter, Ali, moved in for mutual support.
In early 1996, Rosie obtained part time clerical work at a local school. Ali was delivering pizza and studying full time. They rented in a cheap part of Ipswich. They scraped by until 2000, at which time Ali completed her degree and started work in child protection. In 2008, Rosie secured full time work at the school.
Rosie approached a bank for a home loan and was refused because, as she was told, ‘you will retire soon’. Ali applied for a 20-year loan based on her 8-year work history and was refused. She applied again, this time for a 30-year loan, and she succeeded. At no time was Rosie’s income considered, because she was ‘too close to retirement’.
Four years later, after 12 years working in child protection, Ali was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a major depressive illness. She ceased work.
By 2015, their resources were exhausted, paying for a mortgage and bare necessities. There were still 23 years of mortgage ahead. In 2016, at the time of the census, Ali was living in one room at a share house and Rosie was ‘staying for a little while’ with her eldest daughter Jane. Ali stated in the census that she was renting, and Rosie did not consider herself homeless. They will not appear in the statistics as homeless.
In 2017, Rosie was still in her daughter’s spare room, having retired on the aged pension with $40,000 in super.
Contributing factors to homelessness - remember, intersectionality can also impact these. Source: ABS background paper.
In 2018, Jane and family moved to a small home interstate for work. Rosie and Ali moved into rented accommodation together. Part of Ali’s PTSD trauma belonged to her abusive childhood, and she could not manage living with Rosie. Ali headed back to a share house, and Rosie aged 68, now lives in her car.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) background paper, ‘Older Women’s Risk of Homelessness: Exploring a Growing Problem’ (April 2019), gives 2016 census figures of 6866 older women homeless and 5820 living in marginal and at-risk housing. The paper acknowledged that these figures understate the problem, as ‘women additionally look to ‘self-manage’ their homelessness through strategies such as partnering up, moving between family and friends, and looking to take on jobs that provide housing’ (1).
While homelessness is obviously a multifactorial challenge, it is hard to overstate the contribution of historical, economic and structural inequalities that have affected women. Currently, in Australia, men retire with 47% more super than Australian women. Women have so much less super, that the fastest growing cohort of Australians sliding into homelessness are Australian women who are aged over 50 and single.
For more information, the ABS background paper is excellent reading – when you read it, remember Rosie, Ali and the other 10 000 older women, each with their own stories.
References:
1. Andrea Sharam, ‘Going it Alone: Single, Low Needs Women and Hidden Homelessness’ (Research Report, Women’s Information, Support and Housing in the North, 2008) 31. Guy Johnson, David Ribar and Anna Zhu, Women's Homelessness: International Evidence on Causes, Consequences, Coping and Policies’ (Discussion Paper No. 10614, Institute of Labor Economics, 2017) 20–23.