Older women’s struggle for support when facing homelessness

Abstract

The convergence of a rapidly ageing population and an increasingly unaffordable housing sector is leaving a growing number of older women insecurely housed and at risk of homelessness. Women who have been conventionally housed throughout their life course are finding themselves ‘almost homeless’ for the first time as they enter their later years. Over the past two decades, scholars have responded with research on the distinctive housing pathways into – and experiences of – later-life homelessness for women.
Existing research on older women stuck in the liminal space between adequate housing and homelessness shows evidence that they navigate housing precarity differently to other cohorts. For instance, they are more likely than older men to self-manage their housing precarity by staying with family or friends. Practices such as these mean they are also more inclined to remain hidden from public view compared with those who sleep rough.

With predictions of a ‘generational tsunami’ of older women heading into homelessness, their differentiated experience of housing precarity warrants further research. My thesis investigates one aspect of older women’s housing precarity that has suffered from particular neglect: their support-seeking practices and experiences. Using in-depth semi-structured interviews as my primary research method, I identify and discuss older women’s practices and experiences of various sources of support: from family and friends; housing and homelessness services; and the support women provide for each other, often as advocates for their cohort. I focus on the role of agency and decision-making when precariously housed older women seek housing support, and I analyse the impacts it has on their subjectivities, tangible resources and imagined housing futures.

In this space of almost homelessness, where older women are simultaneously identified as homeless (according to the official ‘cultural’ government definition) and unacknowledged as homeless (often by family, friends and homelessness services), older women are eking out spaces of rupture within the neoliberal housing system to connect and experiment. Although the support they are seeking is often not forthcoming, their efforts reflect a transformative journey that starts from themselves in their care practices and experiences.

Date of Thesis submission	2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Western Sydney University
Sponsors	Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship
Supervisor	Emma Power (Supervisor), Emma Mitchell (Supervisor) & Jenna Condie (Supervisor)