Council on the Ageing NSW (COTA) Chief Executive Officer Gohar Yazdabadi said many retirees are already struggling “financially, emotionally and socially” and shouldn’t be “scapegoated for a housing crisis they didn’t create”.

“Framing such policies as a solution to the housing crisis is dangerously close to elder abuse,” she said.

“Let’s be clear: this is the result of decades of poor planning and neglect by successive governments who have failed to plan and build for population growth, affordability and community stability.

Ms Yazdabadi said retirees want to be able to live the rest of their lives in the “homes and communities they’ve built”.

“Any policy that seeks to push them out is not only misguided, it’s outrageous,” she said.