Lyn's Story
After 50 years working as a midwife, Lyn never imagined she would be on the brink of homelessness. It wasn’t until she went through a divorce at 58-years-old that she started a long, desperate struggle to find somewhere affordable to live.
“I sold the family home to finalise the divorce settlement. I tried to get a loan to buy a small unit and found I couldn’t get a loan, even though I worked all my life.”
Lyn spent more than a decade renting, until she retired from nursing at 69-years-old. After retiring Lyn couldn’t afford to continue to pay the rent for her unit on her pension. After exhausting much of her super and savings, Lyn again started the anxious search for somewhere affordable to rent.
“There would always be somebody in the queue that would say they were prepared to pay $100 extra for a unit that I couldn’t afford anyway. I thought if worse came to worse, I could live in my car.”
Lyn considered herself lucky when an affordable housing property became available at Housing Trust and can’t help but think about the thousands of other older women facing homelessness.
Lyn bravely submitted her experience to the Inquiry into Homelessness amongst older people aged 55 in New South Wales with the hope of effecting much needed change. Lyn articulated that women are at a higher risk of homelessness due to earning less than their male counterparts, and women having less in their superannuation due to taking time off to have and care for children.
“I added my voice because others might be too frightened … because the thing housing insecurity does is not only create unbearable stress, but also feelings of shame and guilt and thinking ‘What did I do wrong?’ when really this can happen at no fault of your own.”
Lyn continues to be a powerful advocate and is the current face of Older Women’s Network NSW’s campaign “Where’s Lyn?” highlighting the invisibility of older women in decision making tables.
