Sharing with Friends

Single, older women who do not own their own home are at significant risk of housing stress. They are the fastest growing cohort of homeless in Australia.

Sharing with Friends (Older Womens Co-Housing Association Qld) supports single older women with modest savings to invest in a secure housing future. We develop seniors co-housing where they can live with dignity, security and respect. Our mission is to support women aged 55+ who have ‘too much, too little’; not enough to buy a home, but with too much to qualify for housing assistance.

Our innovative model: Five women use their savings to create a supportive co-housing community where they can live happily, independently and affordably on the aged pension. For many women renting at retirement, they don’t have enough savings/super to buy their own home, and renting becomes unaffordable. We’ve identified a sliding door moment … current situation: in 3-5 years, their meagre savings are gone, they have no access to secure housing/ are on social housing waitlist OR they use their savings to gain access to long-term housing security via our ‘shared equity’ co-housing model. We own the land, they make a housing contribution and receive a lifetime tenure on their own studio unit with access to a shared space. Our first demonstration project is under construction at Darra (southern suburbs Brisbane).

Funding will support our organisation to advocate for change to remove barriers to secure housing for this group of women and replicate this innovative affordable housing solution.

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