Escalating Sydney property prices, rising rental costs and a limited supply of affordable homes are pushing Baby Boomers out of secured shelter and into homelessness, charities have warned the city of Sydney.

Currently, around 14 per cent of the national homeless population are aged over 55. But according to dementia care provider, HammondCare​, this figure is set to skyrocket in the near future if the needs of poorer seniors living on the aged pension are not factored into government discussions or housing policies.

“The usual focus on Sydney real estate is auction clearance rates and record prices,” said Stewart James, general manager of health and hospitals at HammondCare​.

“But if you can’t afford to be part of that story, you may find yourself drifting towards a much less happy one, especially as an older person.”

Mr James said high rents and tenancy laws favouring landlords as well as low fixed incomes leave many older Australians vulnerable.

“All it takes is illness, accident or even relationship breakdown for homelessness to become a very real prospect,” he said.

Mr James added that weekly median rents in Sydney will exceed 30 per cent of the maximum age pension for a single person – even with rent assistance.

HammondCare​ said seniors without a secure tenancy and limited resources are being forced to either stay at friends’ places, live with their children or go from hostel to hostel to avoid spending time on the streets.

Others have been forced to move into aged care or retirement living complexes due to a lack of other affordable options.

Anne White, age 70, is one of the many older people treading a fine line between poverty and housing security.

“I think Sydney is the worst because the prices have gone through the roof,” said Ms White.

“I don’t think it’s going to get any better until we stop overseas investors, in my opinion.”

In 2009, Ms White was made redundant. She tried to get another job but was never successful. Years later, she was told by her landlord she had to leave her rented house. She had nowhere to go and not enough wealth to cover increasing rental costs but her situation was not regarded by Housing NSW as an emergency.

“I was homeless,” said Ms White. “I couldn’t afford to go into the private rental market because I had to have six weeks rent in advance. I virtually had no money to move into anywhere and I was without a job.”

Ms White was given assistance by the Benevolent Society to eventually find accommodation. She now lives in a retirement village in Sylvania that she says is more like “an aged care facility” because a lot of the residents require care.

“You have to take what you can get. It’s lovely but … I am not happy living in a retirement village I suppose. But you have to take what’s offered to you.”

Anglicare Australia’s deputy director, Roland Manderson, said he accepts that while many Baby Boomers currently own their own home, there is a significant proportion of seniors around the country like Ms White.

“While home ownership is high among present day over-65s at 82 per cent, greater proportions of the future aged population will hold mortgage debt or be renting,” said Mr Manderson.

“Without a corresponding increase in housing supply to match demand, the result will be an even higher demand of appropriate housing stock in the future.”

That’s why, he said, this issue is not just a Sydney-based concern.

“It’s a national problem. For people living on a pension, there is no housing that is affordable anywhere in Australia in the private rental market for them.”

The Anglicare Australia’s 2015 Snapshot found that nationally, singles living on an age pension would be able to afford 593 or 0.9 per cent of the total 65,614 rental properties surveyed on a typical weekend.

The charity states that a couple living on the age pension would be able to afford 4 per cent or 2239 properties of those listed.

Anglicare Australia is currently calling for a bipartisan, whole-of-government action plan to address the housing affordability crisis currently facing vulnerable seniors.

“We need to have the states and national government working together on this … so we can get institutional investors to [invest] in affordable housing,” said Mr Manderson.

“There are ways out of this but we need a national commitment from all governments to address the problem.”