For two years, Zonta District 22, which comprises clubs across Queensland, has been working with the HOW Movement (Housing Older Women) to bring about solutions to the shocking scale of older women at risk of homelessness in Queensland.

Several Zonta members have joined HOW working groups including Zonta Club of Brisbane’s Susan Davies, Anne Landsberg and Kate Rose. Susan Davies recently took part in a HOW workshop that developed these five wide-ranging initiatives: 

1. A specialist advisory service where older women at risk do not have to use unfamiliar technology to access help and friendly information (based on the Victorian Home at Last model).

2. Support for at least three innovative schemes to demonstrate new ways of providing suitable affordable housing for older women.

3. Town planning regulations reform to enable more suitable houses to be built.

4. Access land for new housing projects for older women.

5. Support for a display village to showcase innovative housing designs such as co-housing, tiny homes and other initiatives endorsed by the HOW movement to raise awareness and to see that change and hope is possible.

To read the latest edition of the HOW newsletter go here.