Seniors facing homelessness turn to ‘Golden Girls’ solution
MELBOURNE: Sleeping in tents or cars isn’t a dignified way to spend one’s senior years, but an increasing number of women are terrified of finding themselves there.
“Older, single women are among the poorest demographic. Often, they outlive their partners or may have never worked at all,” says Sue Gontier, a member of Peterborough Older Women’s Networking (POWN).
Plenty of people who camped out in Peterborough’s tent city over the summer were older, and never expected to be spending this period of their lives sleeping in a public park, adds Gontier.
POWN is working to create a housing co-operative in Peterborough to provide affordable units with supports and a community. They’re not the only ones seeking housing solutions for older women, as 1,600 people have signed up on Facebook to discuss ways for senior women to meet up and rent together.
Each Wednesday POWN meets at the Whistle Stop in downtown Peterborough to discuss issues affecting senior women in the community.
Charlene Avon, a three-year member, says sometimes it’s just five of them, while other meetings can bring up to 20 people from different working and social backgrounds.
One of the biggest issues the group discusses is housing for senior women in Peterborough and how many of them are unable to afford increasing rents in the city.
With rents going up and fixed incomes from pensions, “that’s barely covering what rent is in the city,” says Avon.
From 2017 to 2019 average rents in Peterborough were hiked by 11.3 per cent, and Peterborough sits at a low 2.1-per cent vacancy rate.
To tackle this problem, POWN’s goal is to start a housing co-op in Peterborough similar to one launched in 2001. Glebe House was a joint initiative between the city and community groups and housed 26 women over five years.
The program ran its course and the home was repurposed for other housing needs; however, former Glebe House organizer and POWN founder Jill Jones says it’s still a working model.
“I’ve always loved housing co-ops because they’re self-managed,” says Jones, adding they create mixed-income housing and help people as they age.
Oftentimes seniors live in isolation, which negatively impacts their physical and mental health. By creating a home where senior women can support each other, it will help them be social, active and healthier.
But POWN isn’t the only group trying to find housing solutions for pensioners.
Pat Dunn was at the lowest point of her life when she was desperate for housing. Her husband had died, she was left with debt and she had no idea where she was going to live.
“I was sitting at my computer trying to find information about how to live safely in my car,” she says.
But she figured there must have been a better way. In February 2019, Dunn founded Senior Ladies Living Together, a Facebook group for women to find house mates.
Since its inception, 1,658 people have joined and about five homes were created by women who met in the group and are now renting together.
“I realized we were fighting an uphill battle because it was naïve for us to think there was affordable housing for us to rent,” says Dunn.
Through the group Dunn was able to find herself housemates and even a real-estate investor who purchased the home. She moved into the home in November 2019.
Seniors are looking for secure housing in Peterborough, where they can safely age without constantly having to move, adds Dunn.
“I’m 70 and, at 70 years of age, I don’t want to move again,” she says.
Many members of her group are single mothers, have no savings or have been left with few assets after a divorce.
By combining incomes and renting a place together, women who are struggling financially may be able to save up and retire.
And she’s heard too many stories from the group of women challenged by the unaffordability of housing.
“We need to have more outrage,” adds Dunn.
Gontier, who worked in social services for 30 years before retiring, says she always thought housing and poverty would eventually get better, but a summer of homeless people sleeping in tents downtown is one example of how it hasn’t.
“I thought by the time I was done (and retired) it would be better, but it’s so much deeper,” says Gontier.
Jones says her group is actively talking with real-estate agents to get a home off the ground, and other activists and agencies are trying to create new affordable units to meet the city’s housing need.
“There appears to be a real sense of urgency,” says Avon.
