Community group seeks housing solutions for seniors

A GROUP of retired Bellarine seniors is working to find long-term solutions to housing shortages and rising financial hardship across the region.

The group, presently named Women Living Well (WLW) on the Bellarine, first formed in 2019 with the aim of alleviating the urgent need for appropriate and affordable housing for women over 55 experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness on the Bellarine.

Led by a belief that housing is a human right, Women Living Well aspires to create small liveable communities that both allow residents to thrive and remain in the community with their existing networks.

Challenges, however, remain with sourcing land and funding to develop such projects.

“For the most part, we’ve been on fact finding missions to date, but now we feel we know what we would like to see, it’s just a case of getting the resources and the money and all the rest of it to do that and to offer support,” WLW member Luise Vine said.

The group now seeks to bring together government, community organisations, philanthropists and businesses, along with builders, town planners, investors, landowners, developers and innovators to develop these low-cost and flexible housing options.

Their target cohort remains women over 55 experiencing financial hardship and once housing has been secured for these women, WLW also wants to ensure they have access to additional support networks.

“Quite often there can be mental health issues and definitely trauma,” WLW member Carolyn O’Dwyer said.

“A lot of these women have been sleeping in toilets – imagine your grandmother sleeping in a toilet – under bridges, in cars.

“It seems like it happens somewhere else, but it doesn’t.

“It happens here on the Bellarine and a lot of people, because it’s a fairly affluent area, they don’t see it.”

She said many of these women have raised families and owned businesses, and for a number of reasons, including illness, divorce or domestic violence, have found themselves with nothing.

While it continues to seek partnerships to support its housing goals, WLW has also been helping to find housing on an individual basis for those who require assistance.

WLW member Christine McKay considers herself one of the group’s “success stories”, after the St Leonards property she was living in was listed for sale and WLW was able to connect her with affordable housing.

Dianne Bennett, WLW’s founder, encouraged those with spare rooms or empty properties willing to rent these spaces out and support those in the community at risk of, or experiencing, homelessness to also reach out to the group.

For more information, or to contribute to the group’s mission, email Dianne Bennett at [email protected]