Extract from ABC News
They spent their lives hard at work and raising families, earning less than their husbands but confident of a secure future.
Now, when they're supposed to be enjoying their golden years, data shows thousands of older women are instead struggling to keep a roof over their heads.
Like many in her generation, Marie Sillars was a homemaker who didn't work while raising children.
When her marriage ended at 50, she had little savings and no superannuation.
"I'd been in a long-term marriage, and all of a sudden I had to look after myself and it was very difficult," she said.
"I really had nowhere to go; nowhere to turn to to assist."
Ms Sillars couch surfed at first before cycling through rentals and community housing over the last two decades.
The stress and loneliness pushed her to dark places, but she's finally found refuge close to family in Sydney's north west.
Now the 69-year-old dedicates her time to speaking up for women like her.
She hears their stories of sleeping rough, in places like parks or vans, through her work with support and advocacy organisations.
"This problem is worse than people think... some of it's heartbreaking."
They are stories advocacy groups say are becoming more common with each passing year.
In October, a parliamentary inquiry found the "face" of homelessness in NSW is an older person aged over 55 — particularly women.
It heard that rising rents, domestic violence and cost of living spikes, coupled with lower savings and superannuation, is pushing older single women to the brink.
The inquiry recommended the state government investigate lowering the age for elderly priority public housing from 80 to 55 — and 55 to 45 for Indigenous people — as it is in Victoria.
Funding a specialist homelessness service for older people — similar to Victoria's Home at Last program — was also among a list of 40 recommendations.
On census night in 2016, there were more than 6,400 homeless people aged 55 and over in NSW.
Of those, 2,186 were women — a rise of 48 per cent.
When it came to women aged 65 to 74, the increase was 78 per cent.
The Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG) believes those figures are just the tip of the iceberg.
The advocacy group estimates and the true number of women aged 55 and over at risk of homelessness is closer to 240,000 around the country.
"A lot of older people are couch surfing. They're staying with friends and family, they're pet sitting," Fiona York, HAAG's executive officer, said.
"They're house sitting in order to keep a roof over their heads. But actually, they're on the brink of homelessness."
A report by Anglicare, released last week, found older single women aged over 55 were eight times more likely to be homeless.
"For many women, being jettisoned into housing insecurity and/or homelessness is a first-time experience, with unemployment, ill health or relationship breakdown being the catalyst," it found.
Retired midwife Lyn Bailey never considered she'd be living on the street, until had to go it alone in the Illawarra rental market aged in her 70s.
With rents too expensive even for a studio apartment, she had come to terms with living in her car.
"I felt an absolute burden on my kids," she said.
"Not only financially and physically, but I felt the burden of the anxiety that I was causing in their lives, not knowing what was going to happen to me."
She was able to secure a community housing property, but knows others haven't been so lucky.
"Too many older women are just like I was — they're covering it up, they're hiding it."
The NSW Ministerial Advisory Council on Ageing said the age of priority housing should be lowered from 80 as a "matter of urgency", in its submission to the inquiry.
It also recommended 5,000 social and affordable homes be built each year for the next decade, with 20 per cent dedicated to housing older people.
In response to the inquiry, the state government noted but did not to support calls to lower the age.
It said any changes to eligibility criteria "must be carefully assessed to ensure they do not inadvertently discriminate against other vulnerable groups".
One third of people on priority housing lists were already aged over 55 or over 45 for First Nations people, the government said.
Family and Community Services Minister Natasha Maclaren-Jones said the government recognised the "growing trend of people becoming homeless for the first time later in life, particularly older women".
"Currently we are investing $1.2 billion towards a range of homelessness and social housing programs to ensure that safe and stable accommodation is available to people in need," she said.
She said NSW had 154,000 social housing properties, an increase of 10 per cent since 2011.
In its report, the inquiry noted it was unclear why 80 had been chosen as the age for eligibility, with some witnesses suggesting it was a means of "triaging the elderly" out of social housing.
For Ms Sillars, she believes the current rules are not keeping pace with reality.
"If you haven't got safe, secure housing, you're not going to live to 80. There's no way in the world you're going to make it to 80," she said.
"It's got to be dealt with. Victoria have done it, so I think it's time for New South Wales to step forward."
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