Small Talk Big Ideas - Glenys Howard - Tiny Home Resident

Thanks for joining us for the Small Talk Big Ideas podcast, a podcast to enrich your soul, where we have conversations with inspiring people about all things property, business and life. And now, the host of Small Talk Big Ideas, Ian Ugarte.

Hey there, it's Ian Ugate from Small Talk Big Ideas. And today's podcast is with Glenys Howard, a lady that happened to be met by me because of something she'd said on social media. According to one of our posts, I gave her a call and it was just an absolutely fantastic conversation and she agreed with everything that I'd said about housing. And what's more importantly is that Glenys is 76 years old and has a world of knowledge. Enjoy today's podcast and the amazing story that she brings forward as a woman who found herself basically single and nowhere.

To go and nowhere to live.

Enjoy it today as always. You can subscribe to all our social media channels and have a look at more at what we do@ian ugarte.com that's Ugarte. U G-A-R-T-E.com Enjoy this podcast.

She is an absolutely amazing woman.

We, we sort of met. This is the first time we've seen each other face to face.

We sort of met because you made some commentary on one of our Facebook posts and it was really encouraging from my side to see someone saying, oh, you know, I agree that this is a good thing. So.

We then had a subsequent phone call. I mean, do you want to tell people who you are? Obviously your name's Glenys and what you've done in your lifetime?

Oh, my goodness, how long have you got? I'm a 76 year old. I retired only fairly recently and I live in a tiny space of 28 square meters.

I've gone from living in big old country homesteads in far western Queensland, lived in Tasmania, Queensland, western New South Wales. And here I am on the banks of the Hastings river in Port Macquarie in Heaven on a Stick. And I live in a little tiny space. And it's simply amazing how easy it is. This is actually old, but new, well designed small spaces to me just simply makes sense.

Yeah.

And you know, that's something that we've been pushing a barrow on for a very, very long time. Let's we go in all directions here. So where were you born and where were you brought up as a young child?

I was born in New Zealand. I was brought up in Hawke's Bay. I had the misfortune to marry an Australian.

Oh, no, no. We did have our good times. And I came to Australia.

I take it there was some good times, but not so good times as well.

Yeah. Oh, sure.

And so I came to Australia to live and I've.

I did go home in the early 2000s thinking I was going to solve the problem, all my problems, but it didn't happen. I was too Australianized by then.

Right.

And I love the.

Openness. I just, you know, I was just far more used to the Australian way of life, let's put it that way.

So that wouldn't make a lot of sense to Australians. What's the key difference between the Aussies and the Kiwis as far as you were concerned and not being able to go back there?

Oh, I could go on, but my personal situation was probably more that.

I was reliant on assistance from the government. I was in my 50s, I didn't have a career as such. I'd helped somebody else build theirs. It was just the wrong timing for me. That's really what it amounted to. And I had children who were telling me I was never going to be a grandmother and suddenly they changed their mind. So that helped me come home too. Sure.

So how many children?

I have two. One of each. Pigeon hare.

Right, awesome. And so with the. With the separation split with the former partner, was that in your 50s or was it before then?

Yes, it was early 50s. 51. I was.

And so that brings up a really harsh point. At the moment in Australia, the biggest growing demographic of homelessness is the 50 plus single female. And so this is where you found yourself. And this is essentially where you found yourself. You weren't necessarily homeless, but you did need assistance.

Oh, absolutely. There but for the grace of God, what I've got. Absolutely, yeah.

And so I. So when you say you helped build someone else's career, you were talking about your former partner.

Yes.

And. And the difficulty here is that.

You for many years devoted yourself to his career, building his career, and also to raising the children and keeping a home.

Yes.

Only to find yourself at a place where you've got no super or anything in your name.

Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, that is exactly the story.

And I know I'm not alone. I know there are a lot of us out there.

Absolutely, absolutely. And I don't know if you got to speak to Rebecca when she was making these appointments, but she was in that situation too. Did it occur to you, did it occur to you that that going to be. That was going to hit you front on?

Oh, no, not at all. No. I had no idea. It was just the typical story of.

Suddenly finding yourself divorced.

With literally nothing, nowhere to go.

Did the. What about the rest of the family? I mean, obviously you've got children. Did they.

Children? And, and they support me in, in, you know, in, in my endeavors and they'd never said they would never see me homeless, but I managed to remain as independent as I possibly can.

And I'm happy if I'm on the list to wake up every morning, I wake up and get on with it.

You know, it's, it's so awesome. I love, I love your spirit. It's so awesome.

So, okay, so you, you have the.

Divorce.

And what jobs did you do, you know?

Well, mainly because I grew up with, with. In. I have retail running in my veins, so I grew up with retail. But retail when you're in your 50s is, is either part time or. Well, not even. Yeah, I do. I actually worked as, we worked in management for a while and then as I got older, of course I got part time work, which was great and I've been very thankful to have that. But when you're not, when you haven't got a home and you're paying rent.

And you can see that being out there in the public arena and paying rent and the rent's going to continue to go up and up and up, something's got to give. You've got to get to a point where you make a choice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Give us a breakdown of, you know.

Probably on an average week how much.

You were earning through your part time work and how much of that. So you don't have to give us some figures, but as a percentage, how much of your part time work wage was going towards paying for the accommodation that you're in?

Well, that's pretty hard for me to say because, because I'm now 76 and I did go onto the pension. I was not earning enough not to go onto the pension when I could. So I was supplementing my income with. In fact, when Covid struck, I was working three hours a week.

Right.

Not a lot.

No, no.

Okay, so you are in, do we call it public housing? Is that what you're in?

No, I'm not. No, I'm not. I've been on the list for public housing for 14 and a half years.

So for 14 and a half years you've been sitting on a waiting list to get accommodation and you've had to go to the private rental market the whole time?

Yes.

I've been shown one property through the housing commission, one place. I took a friend with me and her comment Was you'll live in my downstairs room before you live here.

Right.

It was that bad.

Yeah.

And so you are, you know, mid north coast.

I'm actually beautiful. I'm living in a charity. Like it's. Well, I can call it, I can name it. I live in a legacy unit. Yep, yep.

What, what?

Is there a qualification process for you to be able to qualify for a legacy unit or is just an application.

There always was it. They were built when they were built for. For war widows and veteran veterans. But obviously because the war was ended 70 odd years ago, there aren't as many veterans widows about. So I did not have to meet a criteria. They happened to have four units empty at the time.

Right. So now that property there, it's on the mid north coast of New South Wales, which is an absolutely beautiful spot and you're not far away from the water.

No one block.

And there'd be a concern that if you were in public housing then you would have housing for life. But this is not a guaranteed housing situation for you. And if you were in a private area, even worse.

Absolutely. I mean if I was fortunate enough to own these units, I could see the value of this land just climbing by the day.

Yeah, yeah.

If a high rise was built where we are, we're all flat. It's only on the ground. Only ground floor units. A high rise was built here, you'd get an ocean view.

Yeah.

So sounds like a pretty awesome place. But it also brings up the possibility that even though it's owned by a charity, at some point in time there's a return on investment that they look at and go, well, should we sell and do something else?

And I'm fully aware of that. That is something that's always in the back of my mind and it's.

And I know that because that's a discussion we had on the phone, you know that we spoke.

Now, tell me, from the perspective of.

The housing market right now, do your kids own property? Have they been able to get into the property market?

One of them does and one of them doesn't. Yes, one of them has been. One of them is only half an hour away from me and they live on 36 acres inland, just a little way inland.

Awesome. And how many grandkids have you ended up with?

4.

Four of them. And you love them the bit. You love them the bits.

Two that are close. Yes, I do. There's two that live close by me. Yes. Which is great.

Tell me, what's the difference between. Because I've been wondering about this. Technically, I'd be old enough for my eldest daughter and my second one to become parents. Very young parents.

Yes.

And I've started to wonder what it would be like to be a grandparent compared to a parent. I mean, is there anything that's very different for you? And what do you love about it? Or what do you hate about being a grandparent?

Oh, well, what I love about it is that you have, you know, you have the connection without the responsibility.

It's not your worry. You can just put your hands up and say, not my problem.

And I presume they absolutely.

Or go and ask your parents.

Right.

And I presume that they.

I presume they absolutely adore you as a grandparent.

Oh, I have two very affectionate grandchildren who live close by. Yes. I'm very, very fortunate in that respect. The other two live a long, long way away. So I don't see them. And they're older.

That's very awesome.

What do you do on a daily basis?

What's Glynnis Day look like or week look like?

Okay.

I must say, since COVID set in, I spend a whole lot more time at home. And so I've had to.

Think seriously about not just wasting the day. I garden, do quite a bit of gardening. I grow some veggies. I am an artist. I paint and I do some writing. So I write poetry.

One of those paintings in the background.

Yours.

What is in the background? The one behind my head. Is mine? Yes. The little one is mine.

The little one. Right. That's very nice. For those who aren't watching. Go on.

Yeah, the poster. The poster is my brother's collection of over 150 kiwis.

How do you collect over 150 kiwis?

Well, with no problem at all.

But are we talking kiwi the birds or kiwi like actual people?

No, no, Kiwis. Kiwis, the birds.

Yes.

Right. Okay.

So because they moved and they had to downsize, he took a picture of them all, and that's the poster of them all. He's now got a man. He's now got a man shed. And they're all out again.

Okay, awesome.

All right, well, let's talk about the.

Awesome, fantastic conversation we had about housing. We've got a housing problem in this country. How does Glenys, with all your experience, fix the housing problem?

Well, I think when I first saw your post, it strikes me as. It seems to be.

The timing for me is that there are a lot more people these days, A, living alone.

B, travelling more ex Covid. When we get through all this.

Travelling for work.

There's a number of different reasons why. I see people in my age group in their big four bedroom, three bathroom, double garage and a shed in the backyard and a garden that they have to mow on. A lawn mower. Right on mower. And there's two of them rattling around in this huge space, making a huge footprint. That's totally unnecessary because they spend all this money on maintaining.

Yep.

Do you know how many empty bedrooms we've got every night in Australia?

I would hate to think how many.

The number was 12 million. And a recent study has shown 13.5 million empty bedrooms in Australia every night.

That really, really concerns me when you consider.

The total waste of 13 and a half empty bedrooms. And what could be done with those 13 and a half million empty bedrooms.

Well, you and I both know what can be done with them. I mean, you've already said singles and couples are the majority of people that are out there renting, you know.

Yes.

And so we need, we need better policy and better councils to work along with that. I mean, you said you're living in 28. Yeah, 28 square metres is what you're living in. And you love it.

Yes, I love it. However, I'm also into design and I've seen 28 square meters, well designed, up to date, modern that you would not believe. I just think it's totally fascinating what designers and architects can do these days with a space.

Yeah. I mean, you obviously like the design concept of it all. What are some of the things that you would like to see incorporated in your 28 square meters?

Well, I think storage is probably your most, your most concerning one. It's not only because I think when you do downsize.

Part of your psyche is, oh, I've got to give up this or give up that or sell that or give it away or. There's always a little. A little. Some. There's always some things that you really would love to keep and not have to discard. And I think storage is probably one of the things that I would always consider to be pretty important.

Yeah.

Especially with.

And it looks like.

It looks like that the property that you're in there is above the standard 8 foot ceiling. It looks like it might be a 9 or 10 foot ceiling from what.

I can see.

Might be a nine foot. They were built in the 70s and they were built solid.

Well. So, I mean, the thing, it's, it's. Yes. And double brick.

So I, I certainly, I certainly can.

Say that when we're designing Our properties, we always have floor to ceiling storage wherever we can possibly get it. And generally we incorporate a wall bed into that as well. Because when you look at a bed.

Oh, wish. Oh, that would be heaven. See that behind me?

Yeah.

See the sofa? That's my bed.

Oh really?

And my other room is my studio.

Where you do your painting.

Yes. So I have a bed sit here.

Yep, yep.

And the bedroom is now my studio.

You having grown up, I got this.

Asked this question yesterday actually. We were, we were coming up with our purpose and our vision and our mission and we've been dwelling on this for a long time and we think we nailed it. But what came up was one of the things that I said was I want to bring back community just like it was in the 60s and 70s. And Josie, one of the talent that's in our office, looked at me and said, but you weren't alive during the 60s, so how do you know what community was like?

What was community? Is community different now to.

Was it like it was in the 60s and 70s, Glenys?

Oh, definitely. Yes. We knew I lived on a block in suburbia. I knew everybody's name in that whole block. All my, all my. All our neighbours. We knew all our neighbors.

I wouldn't know who lives next door to this block of units.

And there's a perfect example. You don't know. So in the 60s or 70s you would have known the people either side.

Oh, I knew everybody who lived in our street. Yes. Where they went to school, who, what their mums and dads names were and you know, it was just. And we used to all sort of get together and see each other on buses and bikes and you know, around the place.

So we all.

And also the other thing I should remind you of is that in the 60s and 70s we didn't go to supermarkets, we went to the local grocery shop.

Yep.

And that grocery shop knew all of us and delivered to us all. And we all. And they used to slice the meat and you know, it's. The whole of society has changed. We go to these enormous inward looking supermarket shopping centers, which I hate. Why did they all look in? Why don't they look out?

Yep, yep. It's amazing, isn't it? So, and, and, and this is the.

Thing, I mean you, you've confirmed for me because I, you know, I was born in the 70s and, and I, I knew everyone in the street and you know, my auntie Carmel next door who was, you know, you can see that I'm, I'm Australian born. But you can see that my parents weren't Australian.

And.

But my Auntie Carmel, the white lady next door. Cause, you know, I've got a decent tan always all year round.

She was my aunt. She was my Auntie Carmel.

And.

Yes, you know.

Yes. Because she was your mum's friend, correct?

Yeah, correct. Now, the interesting part of that was I didn't realize that she wasn't my auntie until about the age of 11.

Yes, that's right. That's what, you know, we always did preface nowadays, you know, mum's friend is called by her Christian name, but always had the preface of auntie and uncle.

And so, interestingly enough, we grew up.

In Sydney, very close to the airport, and my Auntie Carmel moved to Alstonville.

Which is not too far from here.

She passed away about seven years ago now, and I couldn't make it to the funeral, but I did write a letter to her daughter Bernadette, who I grew up with right next door. And.

You know, it was a really emotional time and moment for me because my Auntie Carmel next door was much closer to me than my blood aunties because she was involved in getting me out of bed, getting me dressed, giving me food, sometimes inviting me over for dinner.

But that just doesn't happen anymore. It doesn't happen.

No, it's. It's. It's a sad reflection on society which I won't get onto because I've just watched the debate from America and I'm not going there. I'm trying to pretend that it isn't happening.

Yeah.

I don't want to bring in anything more negative in.

Yeah. So essentially what you're saying is that big business, big housing, big corporation has taken away community.

Yeah, definitely. Definitely.

And we can. And we can bring it back. We can bring it back.

Yes. We have to firstly be aware of it happening because it's insidious.

And we can sometimes get to the point where we just take these changes for granted and don't really notice them happening.

There's 26 women live where I live, and I had a birthday not very long ago and about 12 of us got together and it was just the best thing because.

It'S important to be aware of who lives next door to you.

Because.

You. Either they may need you or you may need them. None of us know.

I was actually, I missed the call this morning because an ambulance pulled up outside my unit and three paramedics got out and went to a unit where they were knocking on the door when I went out. As it turned out, the Ambulance had gone to the wrong address. But we won't say that too loudly.

But how many people, how many people.

Came out to see the paramedics from your unit block?

Only me. Right. Which is, let's be honest, we have a disparate group of people here. Some of them, well, in their 90s, some go off in an ambulance on a fairly regular basis. But it was for me, it was where the ambulance parked that I thought, no, there's something weird going on here because I had already seen the person in that unit that was fit and healthy and. Nothing wrong with. No.

Right.

But anyway, they got it wrong.

Yes. And let's hope that whoever needed them did get some access to them at some point.

We.

I just wanted to tell you a story about.

We've got six in. So you lived in Tasmania and. We've got six. We've got. Whereabouts in Tassie?

I lived right up on the North Eastern point. Near Gladstone.

Yep.

On a property called Rushy Lagoon which is now part of the Mount William national park. If you know Tassie. I lived in Longford, I lived in Launceston.

Right.

And all that sort of top northeast area.

Yeah.

So we. So we own a block of six villas in Devonport. So you'd know Devonport.

And I don't know how long ago you were in Tasmania, but there's a. There was a record store, music store in Devonport called, called Red Hot Music. We also own that building and we have create. We're creating 14. How big are they? 38 square meter New York loft style setups in there.

Right.

Oh wow.

The six villas we own.

They have. We've focused on creating accommodation for people that are retired that can't get into the. Into the public housing model. We reduce their rent by about $20 a week. That's not a lot. But we do have two in there that pay. It's something. So the rents should be about 220. They pay about 195. We have two residents in there.

I should say I paid just on 200. So we're talking.

Yeah.

And so what we do for two.

Residents is we've given them lifelong tenure in the property. So until they go to a nursing home or retirement, vill cannot be kicked out. And they also get subsidized. So they get. They only have to pay $60 a week for them. Now the interesting part of that is that we occasionally like yearly we go down and we have a barbecue and I bring some cakes and stuff and they all meet in one house and there's an 83 year old there and she's hilarious. She is. She's. She's always got me on my back foot. I'm pretty sharp and witty, but she's always. She's always testing me, you know, and.

So she just doesn't bother.

She just doesn't bother remembering anyone's name. So when the barbecue happens, she calls everyone by their villa number.

Oh, hey, number three.

And number two. It's hilarious.

Right? So tell me, you're paying $200 a week. How much is left, how much is left after that?

$200 for you to live your life on on a weekly basis.

Oh, I should talk a fortnight, shouldn't I? Yeah, about.

600 a fortnight.

So you got $300 a week to live off is what you've got to live off.

Yeah. Yep.

And that, that includes.

I'm not sure how I do it, but I run a car because you.

Got to run a car, you've got to pay for utilities, you've got to pay for food. At some point in time, you want to have some leisure in your life. You got art supplies that you need to buy as well.

Yes. I must say, while I was still working, I built up a fair few, many of them. So I just replenish what I've got. And I have.

A low limit credit card which gets a fair workout.

But if I do it.

But that's an interesting thing because if you're saying that your credit card's getting.

A workout and you know that every week you're only getting X amount, you.

Still manage to pay down that debt.

Over time, do you?

No. No, it's not right. No, I get it. Right, Dan. Then it creeps up again. Yeah, I'm not good. I'm not good. Yeah, some people are. I see people who are very good at budgeting. I'm not the best.

Right. Okay.

I think it's. I think it's. Well, to start with, I married a station manager, as you've probably gathered. We lived out west, we lived on big properties. And I've still got the siege mentality that the river might come up or we might not be able to get to town, or we might. So the pantry and the fridge have to always be full just in case. I could walk. I could walk to the grocery shop, I can walk to the supermarket, but I still have this crazy siege mentality.

Yeah. As long as you're not like my mother. My mother. My mother will say Nescafe on special and she'll buy three Boxes of it because it's on special and then two boxes of it won't get used by the. Use by date and.

My mother in her typical fashion will say oh but.

Don'T worry when I was young we don't have yous by dates so it didn't matter.

That.

What would you say, what would you say to.

What'S probably the best question.

I'm just trying to think which part of the. What would you say to the over.

50 year old women now that are going, that are, that are needing to make a decision to move on from their current partner or find themselves needing to be on their own? What advice would you give to them?

Well, I guess it's dependent on. Well no, because there is support out there first of all I'd say go looking for as much support as you can get. There are people who can advise you.

In New South Wales we have the service centre which if you make an appointment and go there and have a chat with someone they'll tell you absolutely everything that you are entitled to.

Right.

I think that that's. Oh, that's important to know exactly what you can do and what you can't do.

And it's dependent on whether those people have good jobs or have a good education and the, the availability of jobs. If they're professional people obviously they don't need to be concerned but all of those people who are just hanging on to jobs and are not secure in them, these are the people that I feel very sorry for.

Is such an uncertain feeling at the moment. None of us know just exactly where we're going and what we're doing but I think possibly if you had the opportunity to find yourself somewhere to live that was comfortable, affordable, grab it with both hands.

What gives you certainty?

That's a very good question.

What gives you certainty? First of all, I think if we had a government that felt as if it was important to give us a certain amount of certainty, it would help.

But I won't go there either because that's another whole story.

I think probably it's.

I guess I'm very fortunate in as much as I've got family that I know I could rely on if I need to. It's the people without family, without support that really are going to be suffering big time. I just, I don't know what gives you certainty, I really don't.

I think the fact that you've got the fallback position of family that you can definitely rely on and like you said, there's so many people that don't have that.

There are, there are, these are the people that I feel so much for. It's.

It'S very difficult. I mean at least if, if the woman has been working, at least nowadays she has her super.

Yeah.

And that is the best thing that happened to women I think in Australia it's the best thing. And I always feel grateful to Keating for bringing that into being. I just hope that it continues and they don't. It's not just, you know, doesn't just go by the wayside because it's an extremely important part of our lives.

You may be high five. Yeah, keep going.

If you're 50 and you've got another 10 years of working, put as much into that super fund as you can get.

Yeah, yeah.

And I also believe very, I believe very, very much in.

The specific super fund. If you are in retail, go to rest. If you are in hospital services, go to hsu, all of that sort of thing.

We have industry funds, do a lot for their people, industry funds.

Definitely.

You might be horrified to hear this but Aaron, who's my videographer, who you've spoken to and I went down to an exhibition, a photographic exhibition of a woman who in on the Sunshine coast did a photo shoot of all homeless people in the area.

Oh yes.

She effectively said that 75% of them accessed their super early because of the COVID and went and spent it because they had nowhere to live. Went and spent it on hotel rooms at $120 to $200 per night.

It was the worst government decision of. I just can't, I just shake my head in disbelief. I think it's just the worst thing they could have possibly done.

So Glenys, I am hoping that this is start of a longer relationship as friends because as I'm driving past you on the way to Sydney at Christmas time I'm stopping in to have a face to face chat because I'd really love to meet you and you can meet my family, my daughters.

Oh, wonderful.

And I just want to thank you for being so real. You know it's not often that on social media. I normally get a hammering on social media so it's nice to every now and then have someone go, I agree with you.

Oh, that's good.

All right, so thank you for joining us. Thank you for being part of everything you've done today.

Oh, thank you, I've enjoyed it.

All right, have a good day.

And you've got my phone number so don't drive past without giving me a call.

I won't do that at all. I'm certainly be in there. Thank you, Glenys.

So there you have it. Glenys Howard, what an amazing woman. And I really look forward to meeting her in person when I do travel by her. And what if we even get her granddaughter on? See what a granddaughter says about what an amazing grandmother she is. Thank you for joining us again on Small Talk Big Ideas. Follow us on all the social media channels. And if you want to know more, go to to Ian ugarte.comau that's Ian Ugarte. U G A R T E.comau we'll see you on the next podcast of.

Small Talk Big Ideas.

Thanks for tuning in to the Small Talk Big Ideas podcast. We hope we've succeeded in our goal to inspire and challenge you. And we look forward to catching you on the next episode of Small Talk Big Ideas with Ian Ugarte.