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Whilst ageing in place is integral to international policy, there is less understanding of how individuals utilise formal services and informal supports in diverse rural environments to maintain their wellness and independence. Consequently, how older people negotiate their care within rural communities is subject to misconceptions. This paper draws on the convoy of care model to explore how older rural Australians negotiate their preferences and needs in the context of informal networks, availability of community resources, and the health and aged care system. The analysis draws on 60 in-depth interviews in six diverse rural communities across two Australian states. Three distinct care convoys are identified and demonstrate the interaction of multiple factors including individual preferences and needs, availability of family and community supports, and accessibility of local health and aged care services in the context of resource allocation. The findings highlight how families and communities compensate for a lack of accessible formal services. For older people without family and strong social networks, formal services are relied upon despite their inadequacy in some locales. This research has provided evidence that some Australian rural locales have limited resources resulting in challenges for older people to access home care and support. This results in many older people facing challenges to age in place. With aged care and health policy commonly designed for an urban context, our findings illustrate the importance of tailoring policy to respect the strengths and challenges existing in rural communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract With increasing numbers of older Australian women facing housing precarity, it is essential to understand how this social problem persists and grows despite structural change with greater participation of women in employment and education, and greater societal recognition of their rights. We drew on a life course framework to consider the interaction of personal and societal conditions to understand how older women come to be precariously housed in older age. Life history interviews with 30 older women who accessed social housing due to housing precarity were completed. The qualitative analysis identified three groups: women who were lifelong renters by choice and then struggled with private rental costs on a pension in older age; women who carried into older age accumulated disadvantage over their lives; and women who lost home ownership despite initial advantages in education, employment, and assets. Although events such as ill health can have a longstanding impact on women’s lives and housing security, it is the interaction of multiple structural and personal circumstances across the life course that result in later life housing precarity. The impact of violence including the striking effect of economic abuse on women’s housing pathways was a dominant finding in our study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing focus in aged care policy is supporting older people to age at home. However, there is little recognition of the health and independence of older private renters living in a space they do not own or control. This paper draws on in-depth interviews and assessments undertaken in the homes of 27 older tenants in the Brisbane environs aiming to understand how renting privately influenced their ability to meet their basic needs. An analysis of the findings highlights the disadvantage experienced by many older private renters. Most older private renters were unable to meet their basic needs given unaffordable rent whilst reliant on the aged pension. Further, with limited access to community aged care including home modifications, the health and independence of older private renters was found to be at risk. IMPLICATIONS Community aged care is difficult for older private renters to utilise in Australia, with unaffordable services and tenancy law limiting access to community aged care services including home modifications. It is vital social workers advocate for the community aged care needs of older private renters in practice and policy settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined tenants' experiences and perception living in a single-site supportive housing. Recent evidence demonstrates the effectiveness of secure housing with linked voluntary support services as a successful in enabling people with high vulnerabilities to exit homelessness and sustain housing. Scholars and policy-makers continue to debate the merits of scattered site housing with person centred support, on the one hand, and single-site supportive housing with onsite support, on the other. The manuscript is based on survey and qualitative data with 120 tenants in a single-site supportive housing: (n = 60) formerly homeless and (n = 60) allocated housing because of low to moderate income. The results show that tenant experience single-site supportive housing as home; for many single-site supportive housing constitutes community. Conversely, some design and security features of single-site supportive housing undermined tenants autonomy and feeling of home. Moreover, close contact with other tenants meant that single-site supportive housing was also anti-community. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is limited understanding of the nature and extent of older women's homelessness in Australia and how it can be alleviated. The aim of this project is to ascertain the combination of program and housing models that is likely to be most effective in addressing older women's homelessness. The data comprise interviews and correspondence with 14 Australian and international stakeholders. The findings draw on insight from housing, gerontology and gender studies, and highlight the need to match welfare and housing programs with the diverse life experiences and current needs of older women. Alongside flagship models of practice in housing provision are assumptions within housing and homelessness sectors of what older women need. There is a lack of understanding that most older women in housing crisis have limited knowledge of the welfare sector, and with provision of mainstream housing (and community aged care if needed) will live independently. Traditional homelessness programs and specialised supportive housing, associated with both seniors and homelessness sectors, are appropriate for women who have lived with ongoing disruption and substantive health concerns. Addressing older women's homelessness in Australia requires a range of services and housing responses, with increased attention given to a discourse of housing - affordable, secure housing - rather than continued discourse of homelessness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores pathways into homelessness by older Australians, with a particular focus on first-time homelessness. Drawing on a multi-method study including data mining of 561 client records and 20 interviews with service providers, the distinctive nature of older people's homelessness is demonstrated. Three pathways to homelessness in later life are identified. With close to 70 per cent of the participants having had a conventional housing history, the article reveals in rich detail the circumstances surrounding critical housing incidents for older Australians. It shows that older people are at risk when they are evicted, are unable to continue to living with family, face unaffordable rent in the private rental market, cannot continue living in inaccessible rental housing, as well as experience a breakdown in an important relationship. The results provide key material to inform the design of services and policy initiatives to prevent and address homelessness for older Australians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the theoretical and applied understanding of daily life and the meaning of home for older people living in purpose-built, age-segregated complexes. Whilst gerontology has embraced spatial perspectives, it often fails to capture their diverse and changing nature. This article considers findings from a larger qualitative study that explored the geography of residential complexes in Brisbane, Australia, through the lens of Henri Lefebvre's theory of social space. Data relating to Lefebvre's concepts of spatial practice and spaces of representation clearly capture the routines, activities, attachments and imaginations that help or hinder older people connecting to their living environment. Talking with older people gave a rich account of how they use, think about and produce space and highlighted the tensions in providing this form of specialised housing. As well as providing theoretical insights, a nuanced understanding of social space informs policy and public discussion of older people's living environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In western countries, large residential complexes comprising retirement villages and care facilities have become synonymous with specialised housing for older people, but gerontology has tended to view retirement villages and care facilities as separate and different spaces. By researching these spaces separately, gerontology's examination of the development of residential complexes and older people's housing has been hindered. This paper explores the geographies of residential complexes in south-east Queensland, Australia, by employing data from a larger study that utilised Lefebvre's spatial framework, social space. Its specific focus is Lefebvre's concept of representations of space, part of the triad of social space. The paper outlines how the professional knowledge of designers, planners and policy makers shape and frame the place of older people in contemporary society. The findings indicate that professional knowledge is characterised by contradictions, and that business interests sustain stereotypes of older people as either ageless or dependent. Furthermore, spaces designed for older people reinforce historical legacies of separation from the community. This form of built environment can thus be seen as both a cause and effect of ageism. Generally, the lack of attention by gerontology to these spaces has hampered discussion of alternatives for older people's housing in Australia and, importantly, the development of responsive urban and social planning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]