“No, it’s just me.” Mission and the needs of single

adult houses in Australia.Rev’d Dr Christy Capper

The family in Australia

° In the 2016 census family groups made up 69.4% of households. Of this 69.4%:

° 44.7% of families were couples with children.

° 37.8% were couples without children.

° 15.8% were single-parent families.1

° This means that around 42% of households contain families with children.

1. https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/2071.0~2016~Main%20Features~Snapshot%20of%20Australia,%202016~2

Lone person households

° In the 2016 census, lone person households made up nearly one-in-four households (24%). This has increased from one-in-five households in 1991.

° This represents nearly 2 million Australians.2

° 55% of those living alone on census night identified as female.3

° Lone-person households are projected to increase to 3 - 3.5 million by 2041.4

° The median age of women living alone was 64 and the median age of men living alone was 54.5

° On top of the 24% of lone person households is an additional 11% of households with a single-parent. This means that around 35% of households have a single adult, with or without children.

° The rise in single person households has been called “the most significant demographic shift we have ever seen. 6 2. https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3236.0

3. https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/2071.0~2016~Main%20Features~Snapshot%20of%20Australia,%202016~2 4. https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3236.0 5. https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/2071.0~2016~Main%20Features~Snapshot%20of%20Australia,%202016~2 6. Clare Payne. One : Valuing the Single Life ,(Melbourne : Melbourne University Press, 2018), 11.

Real Estate Concerns

° Real Estate and Architecture magazine, The Fifth Estate, identify five key areas for consideration in housing for people living alone:

1. Inefficiency 2. Safety 3. Connectivity 4. Types of housing (larger, detached buildings make up 72%

of Australia’s housing stock) 5. Different demographics who live alone. 7

7. Johnson, Poppy. “The Rise of solo households and our cities need to adapt,” The Fifth Estate, 20th August, 2019, https://www.thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/the-rise-of-solo-households-and-how-our-cities-need-to-adapt/

Who lives in lone person households?° 55% of those living in a lone-person household identity

as female. While this includes many older women whose partner has passed away, increasingly younger women are choosing to live alone. These younger women “tend to have high education levels, are higher income earners and are more likely to be professionals than women who live with others.” 8

° Those living in a lone person household tend to be:

° Solo retirees (often women who have lost their partner)

° Women and men in supplied housing

° Professionals

° There is significant economic disparity and assumptions within this group. Those in lone person households are also subject to other economic disparities in society.

8. Payne. One : Valuing the Single Life ,11.

The impact of language° ”The persistence of the term ‘lone-person household’ in

the formal collection of data by governments says a lot about how this group of people is perceived. ‘Lone’ implies one is without companions, just a step away from ‘lonely’. I immediately think of the lone wolf, poetic perhaps but not particularly likeable and definitely not friendly. The term ‘one person’ is free of such connotations, but I think solo living is even better.”9

9. Payne. One : Valuing the Single Life ,17.

The narrative of adulthood

° “the narrative of adulthood is still dominated by the traditional markers of marriage and children. Individuals who don’t meet these talk of social isolation and judgement adulthood that can affect how they feel about their lives. This traditional concept of has been continually reinforced by popular culture, advertisements and social commentary, resulting in a general social pressure to get married and have children.”10

10. Payne. One : Valuing the Single Life ,19-20.

° One of the critiques of contemporary Western understandings of adulthood is that it is earned, rather than given. Thus, many are left wondering if they have yet yearned this status, and some people consider them to have earned it and others do not.

° As Australians marry later and as many do not marry, there is added complexity surrounding adulthood.

° Many of those living in solo households are acutely aware of their “deviant” status. As a more conservative institution churches are often reinforcing the “deviance” or sense of solo persons as abnormal.

Community Meals

° Purpose of community meals

° Feeding the hungry?

° Providing community and forming friendships?

° Do we see these as primarily for the “needy”?

° Community meals or dinner church?

Dinner Church° Principles

° Assuming that Christ is in the room

° People are all different, but we all need to eat

° Eating together forms bonds between people

° Conversation and dialogue aid discipleship

° Gospel as both proclamation and social engagement