According to a report in The Age by Michelle Griffin an increasing number of baby boomer women now access crisis accommodation services. Griffin quotes Shelley Mallett, Hanover Welfare Services’ general manager of research and service development, who, along with other crisis services and housing agencies, have identified a new wave of clients – the dinner ladies, office cleaners and housewives of the 1960s and 1970s. These clients, who have little or no superannuation, are being forced out of private rental in larger numbers than ever before.

"They don't know anything about the welfare sector. They have been couch surfing and sleeping in cars… this is an emergency problem that is going to grow, and these are people who don't need to be in the [crisis accommodation] system."

Ms Griffin reports that all the research suggests that this problem is only going to get worse.

By 2008, more than 100,000 Australians over 65 were already struggling to stay in their homes, according to a study by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute. And demand for public housing for pensioners is expected to increase by 50% by 2016.