![Debbie Faulkner Debbie Faulkner](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/7a37687c-ee02-43a7-9ef7-c1fe35e036fb.jpg/r0_0_247_255_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
by KIRSTY STEIN
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THE emphasis on ageing in place in aged care policy ignores a growing number of older renters who are unable to modify their homes and are forced to make regular and expensive moves.
The final report of a Senate inquiry into Australia’s housing affordability calls for action including the reinstatement of federal funding for peak affordable housing bodies, changes in aged care policy to consider older renters, the creation of a dedicated housing and homelessness minister and the development of a long-term national affordable housing plan.
The inquiry heard the private rental market was “a brutal place” for older renters, who were “more likely to end up in nursing homes”.
Older renters in private properties are highly anxious due to “unstable tenure, high and frequent rent rises and the need to move relatively frequently”.
National Shelter noted in its submission that despite the modest extra cost associated with altering a home to make it suitable for tenants to age in place – for example by installing grabrails in bathrooms and kitchens, plus insulation and access ramps – developers were often unwilling to pay.
The same lack of incentive applied to making rental properties energy-efficient.
Debbie Faulkner, of South Australia’s Centre for Housing, Urban and Regional Planning, said private tenants could not make alterations without the landlord’s permission, and owners were “really not that interested”.
“They can quite easily ... find a new tenant for that housing without having to make those changes to their property.”
Dr Faulkner said this left older people with no choice but to move. “Having to move every 12 months when they are on a fixed income – the searching fees, the moving fees, the disconnection and connection of phone, electricity and all those things – can become an unbearable cost for older people.
“They find it very difficult to save any money, let alone cover those costs, which can amount to thousands of dollars.”
The inquiry heard about 12 per cent of all people over 65 were renters, of whom two-thirds were in private rental accommodation.
Productivity Commission data showed people over 65, and particularly single women, were far more likely to experience “persistent poverty”.
About 36 per cent of single older women were under the poverty line for six to 10 years between 2001 and 2010; and women made up 53 per cent of adults accessing homelessness services.
National Seniors policy advisor Kylie Ullman said by 2026, the number of lower income people aged 65 and over who lived in rental households was projected to exceed the social housing system supply.
“Housing affordabilty is particularly challenging for those in private rental, as rent increases well above CPI,” she said.
“Older renters experience significant anxiety linked to their security of rental tenure and many experience housing stress.”
She said one in four people over 65 who received Commonwealth rent assistance still suffered rental stress after receiving the payment.
Pension system out of touch
National Shelter executive officer Adrian Pisarski said the pension system had not matched social change and was based on the assumption that most retirees owned their homes.
“If you have not achieved home ownership, and this is increasingly the experience of many low-income households, then the private rental market is a brutal place if you are on a fixed income or even a pension,” he said.
The inquiry recommended the government look at aged care policy to take into account the particular difficulties confronting older people in the rental market.
It also recommended the government address barriers to downsizing through schemes like the Housing Help for Seniors pilot, announced in the 2013-14 budget but since scrapped.
The scheme would have allowed people over age pension age who have lived in and owned their home for more than 25 years to downsize to a home of lesser value and place at least 80 per cent of the excess sale proceeds (capped at $200,000) into a special account exempt from the income and assets tests for up to 10 years or until a withdrawal was made.