In this deeply moving episode of the Brisbane Property Podcast, Melinda and Scott Jennison sit down with Antonia Mercorella, CEO of the REIQ, to address a heartbreaking reality in our community, homelessness among women over 55.
This episode goes beyond property investing, it’s about the human side of housing, and how we can come together to make a lasting difference.
Melinda and Scott are proudly participating in the Live Like Her Challenge, sleeping in their car for one night to raise awareness and funds for The Forgotten Women, a charity providing crisis and transitional housing for vulnerable women.
If you’re in a position to help, we’d be incredibly grateful for your support. You can donate by clicking on the link below:
https://brisbane.livelikeherchallenge.com.au/page/ScottJennison
https://brisbane.livelikeherchallenge.com.au/page/MelindaJennison
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Transcript
Here is the transcript of the YouTube video, customised to your specifications.
[00:00:00] Scott Jennison: We have a very exciting Brisbane Property Podcast today with a special guest, Antonia Mercorella.
[00:00:05] Melinda Jennison: Antonia is joining us today in her capacity as ambassador for The Forgotten Women charity, and we are going to be talking about a very vulnerable population group in this episode. We would love for you to get behind and support this charity. More details to come. We hope you enjoy this episode.
[00:00:23] Announcer: Welcome to the Brisbane Property Podcast with your hosts, Melinda and Scott Jennison.
[00:00:28] Scott Jennison: Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Brisbane Property Podcast with Scott and Melinda Jennison. We have got a special guest today. We have got Antonia Mercorella from the REIQ, and it is a really exciting episode, actually. It is a touching one as well. I will dive into it in a little bit, but welcome, Antonia, and thank you for joining us.
[00:00:48] Antonia Mercorella: Thank you. It is always such a pleasure to join the both of you, and thanks for having me on. This is a special topic for me.
[00:00:54] Melinda Jennison: Absolutely, and we really appreciate you sharing your time with us, but also the time that you donate to causes like this. When we are talking about the cause, this relates to homelessness in women, and we are going to be touching on all of the reasons why this matters to all of us, but why it also should matter to you. On the Brisbane Property Podcast, we always talk about property and homes and investment properties. This episode is specifically focused on people that do not have a home, and this is why it is very touching. Part of what we are going to be talking about is what difference can we make and how can we contribute to making a difference for those who do not have a home. Specifically, we are going to be talking about a demographic group who, in my opinion, are the most vulnerable, and that is women over the age of 55. I am really excited to be sharing a lot of this information with our listeners today and raising awareness for something that is deeply concerning within our community.
[00:01:55] Scott Jennison: I will jump into our listeners and those people that do listen to this, and we will give some more information later on in the episode and share some notes, but it would be awesome if people could jump on and support this charity as well. I think it is an amazing thing that is running and we are all very, very lucky with what we have got and what we how we live. I think if people could jump on, that would be an amazing thing to do. Antonia, can you tell me a little bit about The Forgotten Women? Why is it called this?
[00:02:26] Antonia Mercorella: It is a good starting question, actually. There is a reason we call them The Forgotten Women, and it is because they are women over the age of 55 who are either homeless or facing homelessness. We say that they are forgotten because often, these are the women who are silent. They do not want to complain, they do not want to be a burden on anyone. Often they are facing housing insecurity. They might be sleeping in their cars or they might be couch surfing, going from home to home. Sometimes their families and friends are not even aware. We know that this demographic of women do not like to complain, and that is how the name has been, that is how that name arose because they are often forgotten. We want to make sure that we are shining a light on them and making sure that they are not forgotten. Shockingly, no matter how many times I say this, it always upsets me to say that it is the fastest-growing demographic of homelessness in our nation, which is really, really shocking. These are our mothers, our grandmothers, our sisters, our aunts, our friends, and it is, I think homelessness for any gender is terrible, but I think, in particular when we think of this group, they are the caregivers. They are often the ones who have done, spent a lifetime caring for others, and now they find themselves without anything in some instances. I think we need to make sure that we are not leaving them behind.
[00:04:14] Melinda Jennison: Antonia, why do you think that this segment of the population, who are a very vulnerable population group, why is it that homelessness appears to be increasing in this segment of the population?
[00:04:28] Antonia Mercorella: It is a great question, and it is interesting because when I present on this topic, you get two reactions. You get it is almost such a stunning revelation to a certain group of people, and particularly younger women. Then older women immediately come up and say to me, “I can completely see how this happens.” If we think about that demographic over 55, we know that there is a number of, I guess, factors at play. First of all, these are often women who do not have the benefit of large superannuation balances. Some of them do not have any superannuation. Some of them have very little. They have not necessarily held full-time work. Again, we know that women in this demographic, they have often either been primary caregivers, or they’ve, they’ve been full-time parents, or alternatively, they have worked but they have not necessarily had professional careers or they might have only worked part-time. Their superannuation balance can be quite minimal, so that is always an important one. Secondly, we also know, I hear from a lot of women who have been with a spouse and then they have broken up with that spouse and ended up with very little at the end of that separation, or of course, tragically, a number of our women have lost their partners. There is one really awful story about a woman who, they were, they were going around travelling around Australia in their campervan and they had a terrible accident and he passed away. It took nearly two years for the coroner to declare his death an accident. Sometimes death, as a result of death, they end up, so there is all of those things. Then what we also know is that, again, it is just that, it might be that they are victims of domestic and family violence and they have fled from a dangerous situation with nothing. There is really, there is not a one size fits all reason, but certainly these are all the key factors that contribute to this demographic being particularly vulnerable.
[00:06:48] Melinda Jennison: Can I ask Antonia, and thanks for sharing all of that because I think that it really highlights some of the complexities around this demographic or population group. How much do you think the current market environment has impacted on the current situation of homelessness in this group? When I specifically talk about that question, on the podcast each month here, we do a market update. We are constantly talking about affordability, not just for properties to purchase, but also for rental properties, for tenants actually finding shelter and accommodation. It is becoming less affordable for many demographic groups. Do you think that the market conditions have also been a contributing factor to the rise in homelessness in women over 55?
[00:07:37] Antonia Mercorella: I can answer that question so easily, and it is absolutely, unequivocally yes is the response. We know that many of our women have fallen out of either ownership or they just cannot afford their rentals anymore. We all talk about that, that measure that generally we have all kind of grown up with the 30% of your income, no more than 30% of your income ideally. I just think when we look at what has happened in the rental market and and and how tight things have become and how rents have risen, that does mean that a number of our women have fallen out of, just cannot afford their rental anymore. Indeed, one of the things that we try and focus on is tenancy sustainment, where we, where we give them some money to help them subsidise so that they do not end up unable to afford that property. We do know that many of them end up unable to afford the rental property. We also know that, sometimes what happens is, you might have situations, again, these are all true stories. I wish I could say they were fictitious and I was just using them for effect, but they are 100% true. We know that in one case, one of our women was renting with her son, and they were in a co-tenancy relationship, and she thought she was giving him, well she was giving him money for the rent and it turned out he was spending that money on other things and they were evicted for non-payment. There is those sorts of situations, and I think increasingly it is becoming really difficult for these women to find affordable rental properties. Of course, as we all know, we are in really tight vacancy rates. There’s also up against so many others who might have steady incomes, professional jobs, they might just be from a, if you think about when you do due diligence on a tenant, you have got this long list of people who want it. They are not always at the top of that list, unfortunately. Then of course we know that, once you have fallen out of home ownership, it can be incredibly challenging re-entering the market where property prices have changed so significantly. I do not need to tell you both that. These are the sorts of factors that are leading to them becoming homeless.
[00:09:59] Scott Jennison: How long, Antonia, I have only become aware of this, obviously because Melinda made me aware of, obviously of this, and I did not really know much about it probably a few years ago. How long has this, The Forgotten Women, been going for?
[00:10:12] Antonia Mercorella: It is a good question. I think at least since 2022. That is certainly when we ran our first Live Like Her Challenge. I will tell you a story about how it came to be also in a moment. Just on that note, Scott, it is really interesting because the first time I ever became aware of this, this emerging problem was I heard a woman speaking about it at a superannuation conference, and it was probably five or six years ago. I remember thinking, “Oh gosh,” and it was through the lens of superannuation, but this woman was talking about the scale of it. I think it is become an increasingly prevalent issue in our society. I feel like obviously I am a Forgotten Women ambassador, but I feel like we are talking a lot more about it. We are hearing politicians talking a lot more about it. We are hearing about initiatives and programs that are designed specifically for this demographic. A quick story, our founder, Teresa, who is an amazing woman and incredibly inspirational, she became aware of it and and became obsessed about helping these women. She was running a business cutting hair, but predominantly a barber business. It was for men. What she started to notice is that all these women with long hair were coming in and asking to have all of their locks chopped off. She was seeing this growing trend and thought to herself, “What is happening?” And of course, that led to her discovering that, of course, if you are homeless and you do not have access to bathroom facilities necessarily, the last thing you want is long hair. They were chopping all their hair off so they had something low maintenance. That was kind of the impetus and the start of The Forgotten Women.
[00:12:16] Melinda Jennison: That is a fascinating story to think that the insight that that gave her into why this is happening. Then obviously she investigated further, and now she is, she has created something to raise awareness of this problem, but not just raise awareness, but actually to make a difference. Can you help us understand a little bit more, Antonia, about your role with the foundation, but also what people are doing to get behind the foundation and how people can actually contribute and make a difference.
[00:12:49] Antonia Mercorella: I would love to do that. My role as a, as an ambassador is, well, I am probably demonstrating the role right here today. One of the really important things is shining a light on the topic and and getting the community talking about it and being aware of it. That is a really big part of my role, but of course, money matters. We can talk about it, but we need to be acting and to act, we need money to do that. Part of my role is to talk about ways that people can get involved, whether it be through donations and fundraising or this Live Like Her Challenge, which we can talk about. It is about, and and really trying to communicate, I guess, the significance and the difference that we can make to the lives of of these women.
[00:13:55] Melinda Jennison: In terms of the Live Like Her Challenge, obviously, this is something that is an event that happens every single year. Scott and I are looking forward to joining Team REIQ this year and participating in this event. One of the reasons that we wanted to invite you on to our podcast to talk about The Forgotten Women and the Live Like Her Challenge is to get some of our listeners behind this cause as well. We never ask for anything. We do not charge listeners. We do not advertise on our podcast, but today we are actually asking for help. We are actually asking our listeners to help this vulnerable population group. Can you give a little bit of an understanding to our listeners in terms of what is involved in the challenge and what we are going to be up for on this night?
[00:14:41] Antonia Mercorella: I would love to. I am going to put my glasses on so I do not mess this up because actually this year, for the first time, we are running two challenges. The Live Like Her Challenge first started in 2022 and it was in Brisbane. This year’s Live Like Her Challenge in Brisbane is happening. It starts at 3:00 p.m. on the 4th of September and it runs through to 5:00 a.m. on Friday, and that is happening at Brisbane Airport. But this year for the first time, we are also running a Live Like Her Challenge on the Gold Coast, and that is starting at the same time, 3:00 p.m. until 5:00 a.m. the next morning, on the 11th of September at Robina Town Centre. What we are trying to do this year is raise, we keep raising the bar. We want to raise half a million dollars in 2025. We are at just a little shy of $84,000, so we have got a way to go, but that is okay. Thus far, we have 271 individuals, 66 teams, and 204 cars to date. The way that it works is it is just under $50 to register to participate. We are asking you to do is just for one night, sleep in your car. It is only for one night, and so you can imagine that at the beginning, there is lots of, you can go and sort of watch videos that people have posted on it. You can imagine that at the start of the night, there is almost a little bit of a, dare I say, a sense of fun, a sense of community associated with it. As the night progresses and and it becomes dark and you get a little bit cold and you are and you are sleeping really uncomfortably in your car, and you soon realise that it gets really hot in a car if all your windows are closed and your doors are closed. Then you are working out how to sleep comfortably. That is when you are surrounded by potentially hundreds of other human beings, and you have got to walk a distance to go to the toilet. That is because you are lucky enough to have a toilet close by. Imagine how you feel doing that by yourself in a dark alley potentially, without facilities. This is what we are talking about. I think that story for me always is is an important one.
[00:17:15] Melinda Jennison: It is.
[00:17:15] Antonia Mercorella: Yeah.
[00:17:16] Scott Jennison: It is interesting the way that you described, and it is not until you stop and think. When you described about sleeping in a car, and I must admit, when we first, when we signed up, we went, “Oh, that could be fun.” Initially, we thought, “Oh, that could be fun. We will go and sleep in the car,” and we have slept, it made me think when you were talking about it then, Melinda and I, this was quite a few years ago now, our, we were up the coast and Melinda’s parents had a caravan and our boys slept in the caravan and we went, “Oh, we will just go and sleep in the car.” We did not even last the night out because it got so hot, we put the windows down, we put the windows down, the mosquitoes came in. We went, “We cannot do that.” We put the windows up, we put the air conditioning on, which we had air conditioning, but then after a while, with the car running, we thought, “Oh no, that is not good.” We ended up actually driving home. Now that was not fun.
[00:18:03] Antonia Mercorella: When you just described, and it’s not until you stop and think…
[00:18:05] Scott Jennison: We didn’t even last the night out.
[00:18:06] Antonia Mercorella: Yeah, and that’s just one night.
[00:18:08] Scott Jennison: One night. When you start to describe it in a way of, we were quite lucky because we had bedding and we had quite a lot of, we were pretty comfortable in our car, but it was still not comfortable. Toilets, as you just described, if you are in the middle of nowhere and you have got no one around you and you have not got a toilet and you have not got those comforts, all of a sudden it puts it into perspective of what that could actually be like.
[00:18:41] Antonia Mercorella: I think we are all guilty of just, I think we forget how lucky we are, how fortunate we are. This is why this, this charity, this initiative is so important because I think we are all guilty of that, you know, wanting more or complaining that we do not have enough, and then you hear these stories and you just realise that these are women who do not have the most fundamental thing. Further to that, Scott, this is, so there is just, there is that interesting, I guess, there is the comfort issue, is how I would characterise it, which is what you have just talked about. That is before we talk about things like, you can imagine when you are sleeping in a car, the prospects of being assaulted, whether it’s physically or sexually, are heightened considerably. Last year when the Live Like Her Challenge was on, I was an ambassador last year as well. I could not do the challenge because I was actually participating in a wedding and I was involved in the wedding and I felt really, felt very bad that I could not be involved. We contemplated, for a minute, we kind of contemplated that I would run kind of a separate challenge and go sleep in my car for one night on my own. As we were having that conversation about where I would go sleep, it started as, “I will sleep in front of my house,” that makes the most sense. Then I felt like that was a bit of a cop-out and cheating because I thought, “Well, that will be too tempting to run inside to the bathroom or to go get a cup of tea or to just check on the kids.” I went, “I cannot just sleep in front of my house. I have to drive away and sleep elsewhere.” And then I thought, “I will sleep at the REIQ car park.” And then I thought, “That is also cheating because it is quite secure.” Then I started to think about where I would go sleep in terms of just down a side street. Then I actually started to panic, thinking about where I would go sleep on my own. I was talking to my two sons about it and they were like, “Oh God, Mom, we do not want you sleeping in a car on your own in a random street.” We’d be worried. They thought that is just, that is what we are talking about.
[00:21:23] Melinda Jennison: It is, yeah.
[00:21:24] Scott Jennison: Yeah.
[00:21:24] Antonia Mercorella: I think that story for me always is an important one.
[00:21:29] Melinda Jennison: You can also follow the journey, follow the night on the Streamline Property Buyers Instagram page. We will be sharing insights of what it is like to actually live like her in a car for a night. We are going to show the raw insights so people can get a better understanding. All in the name of raising awareness for The Forgotten Women Charity. Feel free to follow us on Instagram. That is just the handle Streamline Property Buyers, and you will be able to follow the journey that Scott and I will take, living like her in our car on the 4th of September.
[00:22:12] Scott Jennison: I jumped on the website just a little while ago and it is livelikeherchallenge.com.au. As Melinda said, it will go in the show notes, but I would love to call out to all our listeners, the amount of people that come up to us on weekends and say, “We love your podcast. We love listening to the podcast.” I think if you love it that much, you might jump on and support us. Just jump on the Live Like Her Challenge website. You can find our names on there, you can search us up if you want. It is really easy, and just jump on and donate. Anything, just a small donation. That is all it is. Every little bit will count. I would love it if our listeners could support this and support the whole foundation of The Forgotten Women.
[00:23:02] Antonia Mercorella: I would love that too. Thank you both so much.
[00:23:04] Scott Jennison: Thank you so much for coming on. Jump on there. We will, as Melinda said, show notes will be on there. It is nice to jump on here and talk something else other than sort of property all the time. This is really important. We are looking forward to it and to try and contribute and help through the charity as well. From myself, thanks, Antonia, and to our listeners, thanks very much for listening. Take care and bye for now.
[00:23:28] Melinda Jennison: Yes, thank you for joining us once again on the podcast, Antonia, and I know the flavour, if you like, of this episode has been different to previous episodes where you have shared insights on the property market, but it has been a privilege to have you share insights on the charity that you are so passionate about. Thank you for your time once again.
[00:23:44] Antonia Mercorella: Thank you both so much and thank you to everyone watching and listening, and we really would love your, we would love you to get involved if if you can.
[00:23:55] Melinda Jennison: You heard it from Antonia herself. We would love for you to support The Forgotten Women charity and the Live Like Her Challenge. All of the links that you need to make a donation will be in the show notes. We hope you have enjoyed this episode. It has been a different flavour today, but as always, please leave us a review on your favourite podcast player and we look forward to speaking with you again next week. Until then, bye for now.