RPS and HAA throw spotlight on women’s homelessness for IWD 2024

Affordable housing, RPS’ focus this IWD

Ahead of International Women’s Day 2024, RPS will urge its Australian workforce to reflect on and educate themselves about the huge numbers of older women living in precarious housing situations or facing homelessness across the country.   

Working with not-for-profit partners, Housing All Australians (HAA), RPS will hold a national screening of the documentary, Under Cover, which throws a spotlight on Australia’s deepening housing crisis, and the escalating number of women over 50 who are experiencing homelessness. 

RPS’ DE&I sponsor Karina Cossum says, “This documentary is a timely reminder of how economic empowerment holds the key to gender equality, and it ties into this year’s official United Nation’s theme for International Women’s Day 2024, which is: ‘Count Her in: Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress.”  

“We want RPS staff to walk away after seeing Under Cover and question how any of us can watch this crisis unfolding from the sidelines.”  

Since 2022, RPS has been working closely with HAA to contribute ideas and share expertise to address the critical need for stable, secure social and affordable housing through long-term commercial solutions. RPS’ pro bono work has included helping HAA to examine the extent of veteran homelessness. 

Karina says awareness is the first step to problem-solving. 

“Australian Bureau of Statics (ABS) figures show that 1 in 200 Australians right now are experiencing homelessness. Understanding the common causes of homelessness can help us deliver better solutions to this crisis. The proportion of older woman becoming homeless in recent years is staggering, and so to mark International Women’s Day 2024, we felt it was important to pull-focus on this worsening crisis.”  

In recent years, there’s been a rise in homelessness with a gendered face across Australia. A Parliamentary report found older women are the fastest growing group of those presenting to homelessness services because of a lifetime of gendered inequality, income poverty, and caring responsibilities. 

According to think tank Per Capita, the other sinister reason is domestic and family violence, which has been singled out as the greatest cause of homelessness among older women in Australia. Their report, A Home of One’s Own, which was commissioned by Australians Investing in Women, has found that, without intervention the number of older homeless women will more than double by 2031 to over 15,000 women. 

Housing All Australians founder Robert Pradolin says, “raising awareness and driving advocacy through our RPS partnership is critical to solving entrenched gendered homelessness problems.” 

“We’re living in a time where the cost of living has skyrocketed, and women have to make difficult choices such as staying with an abusive partner.” 

Housing All Australians (HAA) is unlike any other charity tackling homelessness. They seek to provide temporary housing to homeless Australians by leveraging under-utilised urban assets. To do this, they bring a private sector voice and commercial lens with a goal of providing affordable housing for all Australians. 

HAA chair, Louise Rutten says, “too many women are facing homelessness nowadays – from grandmothers to single mothers – and we need to think outside the box if we want to solve a complex problem like this.”  

“This is a crisis that is getting worse each day, and it cannot be solved by governments alone. This is why our partnership with RPS is so critical, because they are experienced in solving complex issues, and can play a fundamental role in shaping our nation’s future for the better.” 

About RPS

Founded in 1970, RPS, A Tetra Tech Company (RPS) is a leading global professional services firm of 5,000 consultants and service providers. Operating in 125 countries, working across six continents we define, design and manage projects that create shared value to a complex, urbanising and resource-scarce world.

RPS delivers a broad range of services in six sectors: property, energy, transport, water, defence and government services and resources. Services provided across RPS' six sectors cover twelve service clusters: project and program management, design and development, water services, environment, advisory and management consulting, exploration and development, planning and approvals, health, safety and risk, oceans and coastal, laboratories, training and communications, creative and digital services.

RPS stands out for its clients by using its deep expertise to solve problems that matter, making them easy to understand. Making complex easy.

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