Sleeping in a Car for a Night: Terry Anderssen Lawyers and the Live Like Her Challenge.
The Live Like Her Challenge asks people to spend one night sleeping in their car, because older women are the fastest-growing group experiencing homelessness in Australia.
Most of them are invisible. They sleep in cars, on couches, and in places most people would never think to look. They do not fit the picture most of us carry in our heads of what homelessness looks like — and that is a large part of the problem.
What the Live Like Her Challenge is
Participants spend one night sleeping in their car, raising funds and awareness for The Forgotten Women, an organisation providing safe and secure housing for women over fifty-five years who have nowhere else to go.
Donate/ Support the Challenge here
Our team took part – Live Like Her Challenge 2026
Sophia Anderssen, Director of Terry Anderssen Lawyers, took part alongside her son Fred — the youngest participant on the night. Their participation was featured on 9 News.
They made up a bed in the back of the car and settled in.
It was uncomfortable. But it was one night, and that was the part that stayed with everyone who took part. Doing it once tells you very little about doing it night after night — and almost nothing about doing it with a child. Something as basic as needing a safe bathroom in the middle of the night becomes something you have to plan around. The things most of us never think about become the hardest part of the day.
Watch this video to learn more about the amazing work this charity is doing to give forgotten women their dignity back.
Where the money goes
What struck our team most was seeing exactly where the funds are directed. Every dollar raised goes into housing and support for women who need it now.
The challenge raised $424,000. The women supported by The Forgotten Women spoke on the night about what they had lived through, and about what safe, secure housing has meant for them. It was a humbling thing to hear, and it is the reason we will keep supporting this cause.
You can donate or support the cause here-
Why this Live Like Her Challenge and the Forgotten Women matters to a law firm
We see the legal side of housing insecurity more often than most people would assume.
Women who separate later in life, women who have spent decades out of paid work raising children, women whose superannuation was never in their own name, and women whose partner died without a will — these are the circumstances that put an older woman at risk of losing her home. They are also, very often, legal problems before they become housing problems.
That is part of why this cause resonated with our firm.
Supporting our community
Terry Anderssen Lawyers has practised from North Brisbane since 1993, and in Nundah from 2022 and the Anderssen family has been practicing law in Queensland for three generations.
Alongside the Live Like Her Challenge, you will find us:
– At the Nundah Night Markets**, where we have held a stand for the past two years
– At the annual Moreton Bay Says No to Violence rally where we have attended the past two years
– As members of our local Nundah business networking group
– As long-standing members of the North Brisbane Lawyers Association.
We were recently named the Winners for Outstanding Legal Service – Brisbane City at the 2026 Local Business Awards.
How you can help
Donations to the Live Like Her Challenge remain open.
Learn more about the Forgotten Women here.
If you would like to take part in a future challenge, register your interest through the organisers. You can also donate or support the cause here-
Terry Anderssen Lawyers is a family-owned firm in Nundah, practising in wills and estates, family law, and business law across north Brisbane and conveniently located in Nundah, if you need advice, Contact Us.