What was claimed
Ladies aged over 55 are the biggest group experiencing homelessness.
Our verdict
False. Younger individuals within the 25-34 age vary are the biggest group experiencing homelessness.
Federal Labor MP Michelle Ananda-Rajah has claimed ladies over the age of 55 are the biggest group experiencing homelessness.
That is false. The age group with probably the most homeless individuals is males aged 25 to 34, based mostly on 2021 census figures, when Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) information is categorised by each intercourse and age (desk 1.12).
The Victorian MP made the declare throughout a dialogue about Labor’s proposal to increase the JobSeeker price for over-55s on ABC TV’s Afternoon Briefing program on Could 2 2023. The proposal was confirmed in Labor’s price range on Could 9.
“We do know that girls over the age of 55 are literally the biggest group experiencing homelessness proper now,” Ananda-Rajah mentioned (video mark 50 minutes and 10 seconds).
When requested by AAP FactCheck for proof to help the declare, a consultant for Ananda-Rajah mentioned in an e-mail the MP had meant to say ladies over 55 had been the “fastest-growing group experiencing homelessness”.
The consultant pointed to this September 2021 article on the College of Melbourne’s information analysis web site Pursuit.
The ABS defines homelessness as any particular person dwelling in improvised dwellings, tents or sleeping out, in supported lodging, staying briefly with different households, dwelling in boarding homes, in different momentary lodgings or dwelling in severely crowded dwellings.
The 2021 census discovered ladies aged 55 and over skilled homelessness at a price of 19 individuals per 10,000, a slight fall from 20 per 10,000 in 2016. The overall variety of homeless ladies aged 55 and over was 7325 (see Desk 1.12) in 2021, in comparison with 6866 in 2016.
In 2021, the group with the best price of homelessness was 19- to 24-year-olds, with 91 per 10,000. This was adopted by 25- to 34-year-olds with 70 per 10,000.
Males aged 25-34 had been the biggest cohort with 14,408 homeless people in 2021 (see Desk 1.12) .
These graphs on homelessness collated by the Centre for Social Affect from 2021 census information confirmed individuals beneath the age of 25 represented 37.4% of all homeless individuals (web page three).
Professor Cameron Parsell from the Faculty of Social Science on the College of Queensland advised AAP FactCheck in an e-mail the figures confirmed “youthful individuals, each kids and younger adults, are the (one) largest part of the inhabitants who’re homeless, and (two) highest proportion of homeless relative to inhabitants”.
Affiliate Professor Catherine Robinson, a housing and communities skilled on the College of Tasmania, agreed: “Youngsters and younger individuals are the largest group, younger individuals specifically, are the biggest cohort experiencing homelessness and the least capable of determine inexpensive rental [properties] in accordance [to] Anglicare Australia’s rental affordability snapshot [see page eight],” Robinson mentioned in an e-mail.
Older ladies within the particular 55-64 age group had been the fastest-growing demographic experiencing homelessness between 2011 and 2016 in contrast with all different cohorts, based mostly on unique census information. This group grew by 51.1%, adopted by males aged 25-35 which grew by 30.1%. The ladies over-55 group, as laid out in Ananda-Rajah’s e-mail, grew 28.8%.
The ABS advised AAP FactCheck it later reclassified the variety of individuals recorded as experiencing homelessness dwelling in boarding homes for the 2011 census, which prompted some figures to alter.
These up to date figures, launched within the 2016 census datasets (see desk 1.1), confirmed the variety of ladies aged 55 and older experiencing homelessness elevated by 31.2%, which makes them the quickest rising cohort solely compared with both different feminine age teams or males aged 55 and over.
This was confirmed by Australian Nationwide College demographer Dr Liz Allen.
Regardless, these figures have since been outmoded by homelessness information from the 2021 census. When classes are damaged down by age and intercourse, ladies aged 35-44 had been the fastest-growing group, with a 19.6% improve. When simply evaluating age classes, the largest improve was amongst kids.
An ABS spokesperson mentioned in an e-mail that between 2016 and 2021, the biggest general rise in homelessness was amongst kids beneath the age of 11, whereas the best proportionate rise was for individuals aged 12-18.
The variety of kids beneath the age of 12 experiencing homelessness elevated by 1774 to 17,646, whereas homelessness amongst 12- to 18-year-olds jumped 13.5%. These figures had been confirmed by each Allen and Margaret Reynolds, a knowledge analyst and analysis fellow at Swinburne College of Expertise.
Regardless, Parsell mentioned specializing in the biggest or fast-growing cohorts may divert consideration away from different teams: “We have to concentrate on how homelessness is an undignified, unsafe and disabling expertise, for all individuals.
“The information from Australia, together with from the 2021 census, reveals that homelessness happens to individuals throughout the gender, cultural, and life course. What this implies is that homelessness is produced by our failing housing and social system.
“Though we must always concentrate on homelessness as the results of a failure to supply inexpensive housing for all individuals based mostly on no different motive than their humanity, the information repeatedly reveals that homelessness disproportionately happens amongst individuals who society fails in a number of methods.
“We see this injustice starkly within the charges of First Nations individuals who expertise homelessness at disproportionate charges.”
The variety of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander individuals experiencing homelessness rose 6.4% to 24,930 individuals between 2016 and 2021.
The ABS acknowledged the 2021 census was held whereas pandemic-related restrictions had been in place and so homelessness estimates mirrored “the distinctive lodging circumstances of individuals on the time“.
The scale of some homeless cohorts together with younger individuals, Indigenous Australians and people displaced on account of home or household violence had been more likely to have been underestimated, the ABS famous.
AAP FactCheck has addressed different claims about homelessness right here, right here and right here.
The decision
The declare ladies over 55 are the biggest group experiencing homelessness is fake. Males aged 25-34 are the biggest homeless cohort, 2021 census information reveals.
The declare older ladies are the fastest-growing homeless demographic can be incorrect. The most recent information reveals the fastest-growing teams experiencing homelessness are ladies aged 35-44 and kids.
False. The declare is inaccurate.
This piece was initially printed by AAP FactCheck.
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