An elderly couple are frightened they will not be able to find another affordable rental after the private rental they had been living was sold.

Countless others are being forced to make the choice between paying their rent or buying medication.

Data shows there is a rise in the number of older persons experiencing homelessness, particularly women, and a growing percentage of people are experiencing homelessness for the first time in their older years.

This reflects Australia's ageing population but also societal changes, including the increasing incidence of divorce, low superannuation, less people owning their own home, high housing costs and insecurity in the private rental market.

Centacare manager homelessness and advocacy Virginia Louey says older people are often on the Newstart Allowance until they receive the age pension at 67.

"Even on the aged care pension which is marginally more than Newstart, a single pension just doesn't cut it to pay for private rental," she says.

"The age care pension is predicated on the idea that somebody owns their own home, because up until not that many years ago everybody did. But that has changed.

"We have an increasing amount of older people competing in the private rental market with people who are working full time and have more money. Landlords can choose who they want. Are they going to take a dual income couple or an older person whose income is limited?"

Uniting Ballarat Reid's Guest House manager Warwick Smith says housing stock is failing to keep up with the ageing population. He says one quarter of guests at Reid's are aged over 50.

Data shows Uniting Ballarat has seen a five per cent increase in the number of older people seeking support during the past four years. 160 people aged over 56 in Ballarat sought support from Uniting's housing workers last financial year.

"If there isn't an increase in the housing stock for that group of people, the problem is not going to go away," he says.

Ms Louey says there needs to be more investment in affordable housing, coupled with an increase to welfare payments to improve housing security for older people.

"For many older people it is their first time experiencing homelessness," she says.

"It is because after a lifetime of working for some reason or another the wheel has fallen off and they can't get somewhere to rent. It is as simple as that. There are people accessing services who never would have in the past.

"It is profoundly distressing and can be terrifying."

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