By the time a woman reaches middle age, you would think that life would be pretty good.
After all, they’ve worked hard for years in whatever they’ve been doing – whether it be a job, raising a family, looking after a husband, paying off a mortgage – or all of the above!
However there is a disturbing new trend: the number of middle aged women finding themselves homeless.
For the past several months, a car has been parked out the front of my brother-in-law’s workplace on an industrial estate.
Nothing unusual about that, you might think. Probably belongs to one of the workers, or maybe it was stolen and dumped, or …
But you would be wrong.
You see, there is a middle aged woman living in that car. Day or night, you will find her inside; through summer’s heat and winter’s chill. She walks to a nearby service station to use the toilets.
Of course the local police, council, community agencies, social workers and the like, have all tried to “help”, and move her on. Yet still she remains.
I don’t know what her story is, or how she came to be homeless. There are many reasons that can cause homelessness – such as mental health issues, marriage breakdown, addiction or job loss.
But I do know that it all too easily could be any of us.
The True Story of a Homeless Woman
Often however, the typical middle aged homeless woman does not show up in the stats because they are not “sleeping rough”.
The following is a true story of a woman who suffered following a “grey divorce“.
Meet Mrs X. After many years of marriage, the relationship broke down. He refused to leave the house, so she did … only to find that she was suddenly homeless.
Caring for home and family, meant she hadn’t been in the paid workforce for many years.
All of a sudden she had no roof over her head, and no way of paying for one either.
If the children had still been small, one of the domestic violence shelters would have taken her in. But as she no longer had any dependants, she slipped through the cracks.
Upon visiting Centrelink, she was told she had too much equity in the family home and therefore was not eligible for any form of financial support. Unbelievable! What was she supposed to do – hit up her estranged husband for rent?
And also, untrue, as it turned out! It would be all too easy for an older woman in this vulnerable state, to decide to end it all.
Mrs X was one of the lucky ones and had family to turn to in her time of need. But what if she hadn’t?
In time, financial settlement was made and she did receive her share from the proceeds of the sale of the family home.
But yet again, Centrelink proved worse than useless. She had to buy herself somewhere to live immediately – or she would lose the pittance they were paying her each fortnight, because she had “money” to live off.
We might live in the “lucky country”, but a lot of our older women are doing it tough. I’ll bet if you put your mind to it, you too will have a true story to tell about a homeless woman …
- If you would like to do something to help homeless women, check out Share the Dignity’s current campaign – It’s in the Bag.
- If you are experiencing homelessness, find out the accommodation options and services in your state.
Kathy Marris says
There is a homeless woman who is probably around 30 years old that lives in the park at Burleigh Beach. She cycles around on her bike with a trailer with all of her belongings and her beloved dog. She always looks clean and reasonably dressed, but obviously has nowhere to live. It is an epidemic in our cities. Did you see how the Brisbane City Council kicked out all the homeless from under the Kurilpa Bridge in Brisbane CBD yesterday? They probably have nowhere else to go.
Janet Camilleri says
I sure did. Our governments spend so much on “researching” the problem when that money would be better spent providing solutions. We know homelessness exists, and that it is clearly a bigger problem than statistics show. I know from my time spent working in the community sector there is very little in the way of accommodation – esp for a woman without children.
Theresa says
I had an all to real life insight into how quickly a seemingly normal life can unravel when a couple of very stategic life-strings are severed. I turned 50 earlier this year, but instead of celebrating I was reminding myself to be thankful that I did have a roof over my head, a warm bed to sleep in and food to eat. More importantly I learned to be less judgemental about people. It has also made me keenly aware of how ‘the system’ is set up to punish those who are struggling. For the first time ever I couldn’t pay my bills and I was slugged continuously with late fines. Talk about a kick while you’re down. Since I couldn’t budget for late fees I was then paying late fees for my late fees. It’s viscious and I can appreciate how women in my age range are a significant, and often recent, part of the homeless collective. As part of my internal appreciation of what I did have I started putting items towards a new Share the Dignity bag to give for their next campaign. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, I’ll go and find a collection point.
Janet Camilleri says
I watched a film a few years ago called “We are all just 2 pays away from homelessness” and it is scarily true for so many people. The collection points aren’t on the website yet but I’m keeping an eye out too! Really wish governments would spend money fixing the problem instead of just researching it.
Kylie Travers says
I spoke on this in parliament last year. Within 10 years it is estimated we will have over 600,000 older women who are classed as homeless. There is a huge lack of support for this demographic. I appreciate the focus on domestic violence, but the awareness for the long term impacts divorce and incidents like DV has on long term or homelessness for women when they are older needs to be there too.
Janet Camilleri says
I agree – support is practically non-existent. I know this from my time working in the community sector – I could refer homeless people to other agencies, who would refer them to others … but nobody actually seemed to provide accommodation or actual services! Frustrating.
Seana Smith says
Women are probably sort of hidden as we are often good with relationships and will support each other with spare rooms and beds… but it’s still homelessness. Food for sad thought, and much support needed.
Janet Camilleri says
Yes, I think you’re right Seana. But it’s a shame that one of our strengths as women, means that there is less in the way of support 🙁 .
Deborah says
I went to an event years ago while I was in Brissy and it was in aid of an organisation that supported homeless women. I still remember the head of the org talking about the vast variety of people they work with.
What I really liked about her presentation was her talking about dignity and it being something their service tried to offer their clients.
Janet Camilleri says
I worked in the community sector for a number of years, and often went home feeling helpless and frustrated that there was literally NO accommodation or support for the homeless in the area where I live. They had to go to another area, which makes it even harder – as they are away from their regular support network, services, etc and it increases isolation.
Jane Holmes says
I run a charity that supports and helps homeless women and girls with bras, sanitary items and toiletries, but more importantly we actually spend a lot of time on the streets helping homeless women and in the last six months the rise in middle age women living rough has climbed dramatically. We hear the same old story all the time. There are no hostels or homes for us to go. We have one women that has been discharged twice from the Gold Coast Public Hospital with nothing other than the care packs that we donate and a taxi voucher. She has been allocated accommodation in a caravan park that is so dangerous due to the sexual attacks that go on that she resorts to drugs and being on the street to numb the mental and physical pain. Her story is one of many. We are working really hard in talks with the Housing Minister to try and address the housing situation so we can actually put women into housing next year and give them a “home”, care, case management and a skill to empower them.
Truly the situation is out of control and these women are definitely falling between the cracks.
Janet Camilleri says
I wish there was more we could do about it. It seems the powers that be waste so much money on “studies” and “referral agencies” when there is nowhere to actually refer on to. And we don’t need studies to know it’s a problem!