Monday, March 25, 2024

Tag: Older people

Retirement Villages: The Housing ‘Secret Weapon’ Hiding In Plain Sight

Australia is ageing, and this presents challenges around housing, care and affordability. This is more important than ever, given there are currently 2 million people over the age of 75 around the country, but by 2040, this cohort will increase to 3.4 million.

This means there will be an additional 1.4 million people over 75 within the next two decades looking for accommodation that prioritises care and support.

We know that housing supply is challenging today and so is the pressure on residential aged care – a sector that is often confused with retirement living. But our changing demographic outlook around Australia will make things even harder.

Importantly, through the Retirement Living Council’s (RLC) Better Housing for Better Health report, we now know that retirement villages across the country save the Commonwealth Government a billion dollars every year by delaying entry into taxpayer-funded aged care facilities.

NDIS Participants Unable to Access House Cleaning Services

A recent news article in Fairfax newspapers discussed a nationwide shortage of domestic cleaners due to the coronavirus pandemic. The labour shortage is indirectly impacting busy families who employ cleaners to help with domestic chores; and, more significantly, is causing genuine hardship for “vulnerable people who have funding for NDIS cleaning services, aged care or workers compensation packages.”

The article contains interviews with house cleaning business owners who have struggled to find staff. The recruitment problem is partly due to low wages, but also due to labour shortages caused by border closures — a lot of cleaning staff have traditionally been international students or backpackers on working holiday visas, however those people have not been allowed to enter Australia during the pandemic.

A reader’s comment on the article also suggests that outdoor home services like mowing and gardening have had trouble with staff shortages. However, a quick search online finds that there are other businesses providing services such as NDIS gutter cleaning services and residential window cleaning that do not appear to be impacted.

A government spokesperson from the Department of Home Affairs who was interviewed in the article said that the department is “clearing the backlog in applications” from international students and backpackers to enter the country. But that statement sounds like hot air for the businesses experiencing staff shortages, and for the NDIS participants who are suffering because they cannot access important cleaning services.  Does anyone seriously think that international students and backpackers who have been locked out of Australia for 2 years are going to take up low-paid cleaning jobs as soon as they are allowed to enter the country? Or are they more likely to do what they are entering the country to do, i.e. start studying or go backpacking?

Let’s hope that all NDIS participants across Australia are able to access affordable and reliable cleaning services again soon.

Labour shortages are impacting NDIS participants in need of house cleaning services

 

Queensland pensioners demanding government action on ‘unfair’ lifestyle village rent price hikes

Queensland pensioners living in lifestyle villages are demanding action from the government, following an extensive investigation into the multi-billion-dollar industry by 9News.

Residents claim park owners are unfairly jacking up their rents, while others allege big corporations are failing to honour their rental contracts.

“When you move into a village like this, you move in for retirement, you don’t move in to fight battles in QCAT or a court of law,” Paul Miller, a resident at Regal Waters in Bethania, said.

Read the original article on 9News.

New housing service launched to help older women

Choosing the right real estate property, house or new home in a housing development or community
An innovative housing support service for older women who are at risk of experiencing homelessness has been launched on Thursday (8 August).

YWCA Canberra’s Next Door service, funded by a grant of $1.9 million from the ACT Government, will work with women aged 50 and over to find and maintain affordable appropriate and safe homes.

Chief Executive Officer of YWCA Canberra, Frances Crimmins said older women were the fastest growing cohort of people experiencing housing insecurity and homelessness.

Read more on RiotACT.

Generation Share: why more older Australians are living in share houses

An increasing number of older Australians are living in share housing. A relatively new group to emerge on the share-housing scene, they are choosing to share for financial reasons, but finding unexpected social benefits.

Share housing has traditionally been associated with student housing and media depictions of the share house as dysfunctional, chaotic, “He Died with a Falafel in His Hand” scenarios. But a growing number of older people are sharing housing.

This trend is part of the growth in share housing across an increasingly broad demographic as professionals aged in their 30s, 40s and onwards continue to share house or return to share housing into later life. Generation Rent is fast becoming “Generation Share”.

Discover the full article on The Conversation.