Housing shortage hitting Far South Coast elderly hard

But when you have arthritis in both knees and hands, cataracts in your eyes, require a dictation app to allow you to 'hear' someone due to being profoundly deaf, all while on the pension, it's next to impossible.

Three weeks ago, Maryanne Beggs found out she and her assistance dog, Jimmy, needed to leave their home in Merimbula of eight years, so she began the process of decluttering and donating her much loved possessions.

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"Thirty days and that's it. All of a sudden we had to move, and I've spent the last three weeks, non-stop, trying to get rid of stuff," Ms Beggs said, even giving away her "life" in the form of her plants and garden.

There was no suggestion the landlord had done anything improper, with 30 days' notice the legislated time required under the NSW Residential Tenancies Act 2010.

However, given the well-reported struggles of people seeking rental accommodation in the Bega Valley - let alone as an elderly person with disabilities - Ms Beggs wanted to publicly raise her concerns.

Having received notice from the landlord, Ms Beggs reached out to Mission Australia to begin the process of finding a home, but of the three units available, two had stairs, unsuitable for the 73-year-old.

"I'm now going into a nursing home because we couldn't find accommodation for a person with a disability," she said.

"I'm a deaf person, I have limited friends because of that, [and] I have a community here at Woolworths that understand me, they know I'm deaf, I wear my badge, they acknowledge me, but they don't converse with me because they know I can't respond," she said.

"And the only other place I go is to the Salvation Army shop, and they also know me, so I'm moving away from a community who already knows me, who is familiar with me and I'm familiar with."

Ms Beggs hoped sharing her story could build support in creating accommodation for people with significant disabilities after the age of 65 who haven't qualified for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

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"How do you find a place in 30 days when there's so little accommodation available?" she said.

"No wonder people are out on the street."

Anglicare's 2023 Rental Affordability Snapshot, published earlier this year, surveyed 45,895 rental listings across Australia, and found only 162 rentals (0.4 per cent) were considered affordable for a person on the age pension.

Just 66 rentals (0.1 per cent) were affordable for a person on the disability support pension.

Adding to the pressure, the Bega Valley's public housing wait times for one and two-bedroom properties were estimated between five and 10 years.

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