For many older and vulnerable women, the possibility of becoming homeless is a real prospect.

In July this year, Per Capita reported that without meaningful intervention, more than 15,000 older women will become homeless in Australia by 2031.

Local woman Di Deane, 71, decided she wanted to do what she can about this issue, so she’s swimming 70 lengths of NextGen’s pool to fundraise for homeless women in Canberra this weekend.

The idea came to her while doing her regular exercise at the gym. During her swim session, she thought, “this is a really lonely exercise, and by gosh it’s boring… this must be what it feels like to be homeless all the time”.

Di is acutely aware how fortunate she is to have a loving support system of family and friends surrounding her – as she says, “my life is full” – but she knows many women find themselves without.

“I’ve had such a fortunate life. You go to Dickson, and you see the [homeless] women there and it’s just like how do they get into this situation? It’s hard to know sometimes what to do to help,” says Di.

“That whole issue about women over the age of 50, it’s like how can this be? How as a society like we are particularly in Canberra, how can this be?”

With no fundraising goal, Di is diving in to raise every dollar she can and while she’s at it, hope governments implement more initiatives to improve services for people experiencing homelessness. 

“I can’t imagine what it would be like for these people who are here through no fault of their own,” she says.

“And what I’m doing by raising money is really just trying to help the symptoms, it’s not helping the cause, and I think I think all governments, state and federal, are just not doing enough to stop these things happening.”

She has connected with two Canberra-based charities, Mary Mackillop House and Share the Dignity, who provide housing for homeless women and work on the ground to make a difference.

“I’m prepared to do the swim, but I don’t want to put expectations on other people if that’s not their thing, but if I could do just a little bit to raise awareness, get it in people’s head,” Di says.

“I guess if I even raised a couple of thousand for each of these organisations, it would certainly be worthwhile, and I’d be really happy with that.”

“I’m very happy if they [Canberrans] want to make a donation to either of these two organisations, or any other organisation that supports homeless people in any way, but that’ll be the government again for better accommodation and better mental health services. I think we’re really failing in those two areas.”

The total length of the swim will be 1750m, and Di says it’ll be a challenge, but one she’s prepared to take on.

The ‘70 for 70’ fundraiser kicks off at 10am on Sunday 27 November at NextGen, Lyneham. Donations can be made to MacKillop House on Catholic Care’s website and to Share the Dignity on its website.

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