This isn’t the retirement that Mary had dreamed of.

The former midwife spent years living on a cattle station with her husband on the north-western edge of Australia - outside her window, the vast and ruggedly beautiful Kimberley region.

Now, though, the frail 71-year-old spends most of her days and nights in her battered car. Her current view is the public toilet block of a Perth shopping centre.

Mary is not her real name. She does not want people she knows to find out she is living like this.

She is one of the roughly 122,000 people who are homeless in Australia on any given night, according to data from the country’s bureau of statistics.

A recent government report says that 40% of renters on low income are now at risk of joining that cohort.

In recent years, record house prices, underinvestment in social housing, a general shortage of homes and drastically climbing rents, have left much of the nation’s growing population struggling to find a place to live.

  • Media Bias Fact Checker@lemmy.worldB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    5 months ago
    BBC News Media Bias Fact Check Credibility: [High] (Click to view Full Report)

    BBC News is rated with High Creditability by Media Bias Fact Check.

    Bias: Left-Center
    Factual Reporting: High
    Country: United Kingdom
    Full Report: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/bbc/

    Check the bias and credibility of this article on Ground.News


    Thanks to Media Bias Fact Check for their access to the API.
    Please consider supporting them by donating.

    Footer

    Media Bias Fact Check is a fact-checking website that rates the bias and credibility of news sources. They are known for their comprehensive and detailed reports.

    Beep boop. This action was performed automatically. If you dont like me then please block me.💔
    If you have any questions or comments about me, you can make a post to LW Support lemmy community.

  • fart_pickle@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    20
    ·
    5 months ago

    Devil’s advocate here. While I feel sorry for the people struggling with the housing crisis, it always puzzles me when the so called boomer generation is having problems with a living situation. Back then it wasn’t that hard to buy a house that by today’s standards would be enough to support retirement. I have a feeling that the Media are cherry picking sad stories to get the public’s attention (aka clickbait).

    • Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      5 months ago

      Well they did give some statistics as well. My feeling was they were including statistics along with a story to give a more human connection to the issue which you can’t really do by just presenting the cold numbers. Do you think something is missing here that should have been included to give a more complete view of the issue?

      • fart_pickle@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        11
        ·
        5 months ago

        Yes, I do think something is missing here. As cold as it sounds, it’s the single person responsibility to provide for itself. If you are 70+ years old and you have nothing to support your retirement, it’s mostly your fault.

        • Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          5 months ago

          Hang on, I don’t think I get what you mean. So you see homelessness as a purely individual problem that we shouldn’t make efforts to discuss or address as a society? Maybe I’m not understanding your comment properly but that’s what it sounded like you were saying from my reading.

          • Deceptichum@quokk.au
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            They’re saying these people lived through a boom time, and had the easiest life of anyone as things have now gotten far worse to the point most people can’t even afford a home with a lifetime of work whereas their generation could outright own a house in a few years on a single income.

            They coasted through life on easy mode, fucked the country for the current generation to keep their greedy lifestyle, didn’t save, and now have to be bailed out by society for a problem they made when were not even capable of supporting ourselves and now have to carry them as well.

        • Great Blue Heron@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          5 months ago

          That is such a fucked up view of the world that I have a hard time accepting that it’s real (even though I know it’s quite common).

    • triptrapper@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      5 months ago

      Sure, in general people had an easier time buying a house in 1960, but that doesn’t account for individual hardship, and this attitude certainly doesn’t help people who need a place to live right now.

    • fart_pickle@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      7
      ·
      5 months ago

      It’s amazing how people who blame boomers for all the evil in the world, are so sympathetic for other boomers who weren’t so lucky.

        • hedgehogging_the_bed@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          5 months ago

          Their “baby boom” that defined the American generation called “boomers” was different in Australia and didn’t peak until much later, in the late 1960s I believe.