No shelter for women on streets

Spary slams ‘disgraceful’ situation

ONE of Toowoomba’s leading homelessness advocates has slammed the lack of crisis accommodation for older women as “disgraceful”.

BASE Services coordination Tiff Spary criticised the current situation for homeless women in Toowoomba, saying there was no actual shelters or accommodation for females unless they were escaping domestic and family violence.

In some cases, Mrs Spary said she had to refer women onto Brisbane for help.

“We have a very ageing homeless population, and a lot of women who are homeless,” she said.

“The biggest increase in Australia (among homeless people) are women over 45.

“When a woman over 45 comes to me, if they’re not escaping domestic violence, I have no temporary accommodation to refer them to.

“Often I have to send people to Brisbane. It’s disgraceful.”

Mrs Spary, who has been the driver behind the successful Second Shot traineeship program in the CBD, said several factors often contributed to a woman finding herself on the street.

“Women over 45 usually have been the wife and homemaker,” she said.

“Maybe they’ve become a single mum, their child grows up and they lose their pension. They can’t afford the rent and are asked to leave.

“They’ve got no super because they’ve never worked, and because they’re older, no one wants to take them in.

“It’s such a scary thing, and the number of women sleeping in their cars is disgraceful.”

The Australian Homelessness Monitor last year found increases in homelessness were driven by women primarily, due to domestic violence or the current “housing crisis”.

Mrs Spary’s comments come after The Chronicle revealed on Saturday that Toowoomba was facing a homelessness crisis thanks to several factors.