Page 1188 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 May 2020
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Over the last decade, the number of older homeless people nationally increased by 49%. Although older women do not account for the majority of homeless people, they represent a rapidly growing demographic in the homeless population— increasing by 31% nationally from 2011.
Factors such as domestic violence, relationship breakdown, financial difficulty and limited superannuation can put older women at risk of homelessness.
On Census night 2016, there were 83 older women who reported that they were homeless in the ACT. This is an increase of 23.8% (67) from 2011.
Over the 2018-19 financial year, 119 older women aged 55 years and older accessed specialist homelessness services in the ACT representing 3.1% of people in the ACT who accessed these services.
The ABS defines someone who is homelessness is when they don’t have suitable accommodation alternatives and their current living arrangement is in a dwelling that is inadequate; or has no tenure, or if their initial tenure is short and not extendable; or does not allow them to have control of, and access to space for social relations. This includes people in emergency accommodation or couch surfing with friends or family. It can also include a household that is severely overcrowded.
Due to the hidden nature of women’s homelessness and the statistical methods used to count homelessness, it is recognised that these figures understate the true extent of the issue, particularly for women experiencing family or domestic violence, or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.
Older women facing homelessness is projected to be a growing cohort in need of additional support. In response, the ACT Government has provided funding of approximately $1.9 million over four years to the YWCA Canberra to support older women who are either homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.
The Next Door service, which was launched in August 2019, includes specialist case management and coordination, tenancy advice and support, and access to affordable safe and secure housing.
Health—COVID-19
Ms Stephen-Smith (in reply to a supplementary question by Miss C Burch on Thursday, 2 April 2020):
For the period 12 March to 2 April 2020, 3067 people were tested for COVID-19 and 2664 did not meet the criteria for testing. These figures do not include presentations at the Walk-in Centres located at Belconnen, Gungahlin or Tuggeranong however Canberra Health Services (CHS) has since commenced collecting this data and acknowledges these numbers to be small.
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