October is the month the world turns its attention to older people. On 1 October, the United Nations marked the International Day of Older Persons under the 2026 theme The Age of Longevity: Rethinking Systems for Longer Lives, and all through October Queensland celebrates Seniors Month with the theme Connect and Celebrate. We’re marking both by releasing two reports. People are living longer, but for too many older women, a longer life means more years of rent stress, insecure leases and moving with nowhere safe to go. Rethinking systems is exactly what the women in our survey have asked for.
Our Reflective Survey Findings & Advocacy Report draws on the voices of more than 600 people, mostly women over 50, who answered the HOW M housing survey between 2023 and 2026. Eight in ten told us they had faced housing stress, and more than half had moved without a safe, secure place to go. They also told us what they want: affordable homes, long-term security, and independence with connection to others.
Our supplementary report, A Longer View: Then and Now, Three Years of Findings, looks back over three snapshots of the survey. As the number of responses doubled, the findings held steady, and the pressure grew. The share of women paying more than 60% of their income on housing rose from 23.8% in 2024 to 26.8% in 2026. Our thanks to Julie Coulthard for this careful work and the work undertaken by at Lauren during her placement with HAAG in 2024 and Jo Reilly – HOWM Core Group in 2025. Please read the reports, share them, and join us in calling for homes that older women can afford.