If you've been chafing at the bit while locked down in your home, spare a thought for those people, many of whom are elderly, who have no home to hunker down in, or for whom their sanctuary has become a perilous place.
People like Clare (not her real name), who at 69 was sleeping in public toilets and train stations. Or Lydia, 62, who found herself homeless and ill after her family threw her onto the streets.
Both these women have been helped by not-for-profit organisation Link Housing.
Clare has moved into a small garden apartment in the northern suburbs and Lydia into Beecroft House, a vacant aged care facility on Sydney's upper north shore that has been converted into group housing for 21 older women.
Link Housing provides help for people of all ages but prioritises the young and the elderly as they are the most vulnerable. The organisation owns or manages 4000 homes in the Hornsby/Ryde area.
Women over 55 are one of the most at risk groups for homelessness. About 15 per cent of people presenting to the organisation are in this demographic.
Link's head of Housing Services Alison O'Neill said homelessness for older women presented very differently from younger women.
"Older women carry a lot of shame for what they have experienced and they are reluctant to seek help," she said. "We find that their ability to improve their circumstances is so much less than people who are under 60."
As serious as things are in normal circumstances, they have become a lot worse since the pandemic with a 10-20 per cent increase in people presenting for help.
"What we've seen is an increase in the number of older people coming to us who had been couch- surfing or a kind friend has given them a room," Ms O'Neill said. "Then all of a sudden in early March, when people were very fearful, they were told 'sorry you can't be in my house any more'."
COVID-19 has also brought about an increase in domestic violence and elder abuse as people face financial problems and/or have locked down together.
Sometimes, like Clare and Lydia, Link's clients come to them in desperate straits, many in their 70s and 80s, frail or discharged from hospital with just the clothes on their backs.
- 9412-5111 www.linkhousing.org.au
Eileen Wood
I'm a senior news journalist at The Senior newspaper, the leading publication bringing targeted news on issues affecting older Australians. We cover NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, SA and WA. If you have a story idea I would love to hear it. You can email me: eileen.wood@thesenior.com.au or phone The Senior 02-4355-5000, mob. 0487 495 805
I'm a senior news journalist at The Senior newspaper, the leading publication bringing targeted news on issues affecting older Australians. We cover NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, SA and WA. If you have a story idea I would love to hear it. You can email me: eileen.wood@thesenior.com.au or phone The Senior 02-4355-5000, mob. 0487 495 805
