Housing responses for older women who have experienced homelessness: a scoping review

While there is considerable literature documenting women’s experiences of homelessness, including older women, little research and limited evidence focusses on sustainable and long-term housing responses. Considering this gap in relation to older women we undertook a scoping review guided by the research question: what are the affordable, long-term and sustainable housing responses to women over the age of 55 who have experienced homelessness? Informed by a gendered lens on ontological security, this research drew on Arksey & O’Malley’s scoping review methodology to comprehensively identify, collect and analyse housing responses for older women who have experienced homelessness. We employed two domains of build and service in our analysis of the peer-reviewed (n = 8) and grey literature (n = 46) and we found six themes: stability; safety; privacy and connection under the build domain; holistic and person-centred services; advocacy; partnership and respect under the service domain. Based on these themes, we then discuss three intersecting areas of consideration: alone and together, security and accessibility and partnership and collaboration. Our findings highlight the necessity of ensuring older women are involved in co-designing housing responses. Such co-design approaches create the conditions for women to feel at home, safe and settled.