Older and at risk of losing your home: Rent Assistance, care finders and aged care help from age 50

If you have nowhere safe to sleep tonight, Ask Izzy (askizzy.org.au) helps you find shelter, food and other support near you, and your state or territory housing service can help with crisis accommodation [8]. If you are leaving family violence, see our separate article on leaving family violence later in life.

A rent rise, a lease that isn't renewed, a house sale after a partner dies. For a growing number of older Australians, that's all it takes to go from settled to couch surfing. The Age Pension keeps paying through all of it. What changes, often without people realising, is their Rent Assistance, and the aged care system has a separate set of supports that start well before pension age.

This article covers three things: how your Rent Assistance changes depending on where you end up, the aged care help available from age 50, and what happened to the old "Assistance with Care and Housing" program. Rates are those applying from 20 September 2026 (FY2026-27).

What counts as "at risk of homelessness"

You don't have to be sleeping rough. Services Australia treats living in a refuge, crisis or temporary accommodation, couch surfing, sheltering in a car, or living in a severely overcrowded home as forms of homelessness [8].

For aged care, My Aged Care uses a test with four parts [1]. You may be eligible if you:

• are aged 50 or older, and
• have prematurely aged and need services for aged care needs, and
• have no adequate roof over your head, or have no security of tenure or move between temporary or medium-term shelter, or live in accommodation below minimum community standards, and
• don't have the means to change your living arrangements.

The care needs part matters. Being homeless at 55 doesn't on its own get you aged care. You need care needs that an assessment confirms. The Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP) manual sets the same entry points: 65 and over, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people from 50, or people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness from 50 [6]. If you're under 65, you must choose aged care services before you turn 65, and you must be told about other services that may suit you better [6].

Your Rent Assistance depends on where you land

Rent Assistance is added to your Age Pension if you rent privately. You get 75 cents for every dollar of rent above a minimum threshold, up to a maximum [9]. The catch for someone losing their home is that the next place often falls under a different rule.

Rent Assistance rates from 20 September 2026 (per fortnight) [9][10]

The sharer rate is two-thirds of the single maximum [11]. It applies if you're single with no dependent children and have a legal right to share a bathroom, kitchen or bedroom with others. That legal right can come from being on the lease. It can also come from a spoken agreement with a friend, backed by a rent verification document showing you pay regular amounts [11].

Several living situations are exempt from the sharer rate, even though you share facilities [11]:

• boarders and lodgers who get meals as part of the arrangement
• people in a boarding house, rooming house, hostel, guest house, private hotel or similar
• singles living alone in a caravan, boat or mobile home, even in a caravan park.

If you pay board and lodging, Rent Assistance is worked out on the lodging part only. If you can't say what the lodging costs, Services Australia uses two-thirds of the total as your rent [9].

If you stay with family or friends and pay nothing, there's no rent and no Rent Assistance. If you pay them rent or board, Rent Assistance may be payable, and sharer rules may apply [12].

Crisis or short-term accommodation is different again. Rent Assistance is generally not paid for temporary accommodation. It is paid only in special circumstances where that place can fairly be treated as your home. Examples are being away for medical treatment, a home made uninhabitable by fire or flood, or taking refuge from family and domestic violence [12].

Worked example: Margaret, 74, losing her lease

Margaret is single and gets the full Age Pension of $1,237.70 a fortnight [13]. She rents a unit for $500 a fortnight. Her Rent Assistance is 75% × ($500 − $157.80) = $256.65, capped at $223.80. Her total is $1,461.50 a fortnight.

Her landlord sells. Here is what each of her options would pay, assuming her pension stays at the full rate:

Two rooms at the same rent pay different amounts. The rule that drives the difference is whether the place counts as shared private accommodation. Margaret can't change those rules. Knowing them can still help her compare options and report her new arrangement correctly. Whatever she chooses, she needs to tell Services Australia when she moves or her rent changes, because her Rent Assistance will be recalculated [9]. Our Rent Assistance explainer covers the basics in more detail.

Getting paid without a fixed address

Services Australia can pay into your own bank account or the account of an authorised nominee [8]. That can be a family member or support worker you trust. Our article on Centrelink nominee arrangements explains how to set one up. If you already get the Age Pension, you may also be able to get an advance, a lump sum of your payment paid early [8]. That's covered in Centrelink advance payments and hardship.

Aged care help from age 50

Aged care providers can deliver services where you are currently staying, including a temporary place. You can choose to meet workers somewhere you feel safe, such as a library, café or service centre [1].

Care finders: free, hands-on help through the system

Care finders are free [3]. They are for vulnerable older people who have no carer or support person, or none they trust, and who are eligible for government-funded aged care. They also need one or more of these reasons for intensive help [3]:

• difficulty communicating because of language or literacy
• difficulty understanding information and making decisions
• reluctance to deal with aged care or government
• being unsafe without services.

A care finder usually visits in person. They can call My Aged Care for you and arrange an assessment, come to the assessment, shortlist providers, help with forms and service agreements, and check in after services start. They can also link you to housing and homelessness, health, mental health, and drug and alcohol services [3]. Care finder organisations are listed by region on the My Aged Care website. Primary Health Networks manage them [3][4].

Whatever happened to "Assistance with Care and Housing"?

For many years the Assistance with Care and Housing (ACH) program was the aged care service for people at risk of homelessness. It no longer runs under that name. The ACH program, apart from hoarding and squalor services, moved out of the CHSP and into the care finder program. Former ACH providers were offered contracts as care finder organisations [5]. Care finder services began on 3 January 2023 [4]. If a provider listing or an older article still mentions ACH, the help it describes now comes through a care finder.

Hoarding and squalor help stays in CHSP

The part of ACH that stayed in the CHSP is hoarding and squalor assistance. It is for people on a low income who live with hoarding behaviour or in squalid conditions and are at risk of homelessness [6]. It can include one-off clean-ups, a plan, regular reviews and links to specialist services. The manual notes it may take many visits for a worker to build enough trust before decluttering or deep cleaning can happen [6].

You pay no client contribution for hoarding and squalor services. Other CHSP services, such as meals, still attract the usual contribution [6]. The program won't pay for accommodation [6]. If you're already on Support at Home, you can get hoarding and squalor services through the CHSP as well, after a reassessment [6]. Our CHSP explainer covers the wider program.

If you can't afford aged care fees

Financial hardship assistance can cover some or all of your aged care contributions, fees and accommodation costs [7]. To apply, you need an income and assets assessment and assets of no more than $48,270.30, excluding unrealisable assets. That figure is 1.5 times the annual single Age Pension with supplements: $1,237.70 × 26 × 1.5 [7][13]. You also must not have gifted more than $10,000 in the current financial year or any of the previous four, or more than $30,000 over those five years [7]. See aged care financial hardship assistance.

What aged care can't do

None of this is housing. Aged care supports can keep you safe and cared for while you find somewhere to live, but long-term social, public and community housing is run by state and territory governments, each with its own rules [2]. Some aged care homes do specialise in accommodating people who have been homeless [2]. That is a separate path, and it starts with an aged care assessment.

What this means for you

Questions worth working through, on your own or with someone you trust:

• If you're moving, will the new place count as shared private accommodation, a boarding or rooming house, or board with meals? Each one changes your Rent Assistance.
• Can you get a written lease or rent receipt? That evidence decides how Centrelink treats your rent.
• If you're over 50, do you have care needs that an aged care assessment would recognise?
• Is there someone who can help you deal with My Aged Care and Centrelink? If not, a care finder may be the right first call.
• If clutter or the condition of your home is putting your tenancy at risk, could hoarding and squalor assistance help before an eviction?

Where to go next

• My Aged Care: 1800 200 422, or search "care finder" on myagedcare.gov.au for your region [1][3].
• Services Australia: report a move or rent change on your main payment line, or ask about a Community Partnership Specialist Officer for intensive support [8].
• State housing services and Ask Izzy for crisis and social housing [2][8].
• National Debt Helpline: 1800 007 007, free, if debts are part of the pressure [2].
• Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN): free advocacy, including help with aged care hardship applications [2].
• A licensed financial adviser can look at how a move or a change in your assets affects your pension.

Sources

1. My Aged Care — Support for individuals who are experiencing homelessness or at risk of experiencing homelessness
2. My Aged Care — Experiencing homelessness or financial stress
3. My Aged Care — Help from a care finder
4. Department of Health, Disability and Ageing — Care finder program
5. Department of Health, Disability and Ageing — Second report on the implementation of the care finder program (September 2025)
6. Department of Health, Disability and Ageing — Commonwealth Home Support Program Manual 2025-27 (effective 1 November 2025, version 5, September 2026)
7. My Aged Care — Financial hardship assistance
8. Services Australia — Homelessness
9. Services Australia — How much Rent Assistance you can get
10. DSS, Social Security Guide 5.1.7.10 — RA current rates (as at 20 September 2026)
11. DSS, Social Security Guide 3.8.1.110 — Sharers provisions for RA
12. DSS, Social Security Guide 3.8.1.90 — Temporary accommodation & RA
13. DSS, Social Security Guide 5.1.8.10 — Common pension rates (20 September 2026 to 19 March 2027)