Thousands of Australian renters are struggling to afford housing, a new Anglicare Australia study shows. Source: Canberra Times.
The organisation’s annual Rental Affordability Snapshot shows fewer than one in 100 full-time workers on the minimum wage can afford homes to rent.
It’s even worse for a person out of work, with the survey of more than 51,000 rental listings showing just three were affordable for someone on JobSeeker.
Anglicare executive director Kasy Chambers said people on the lowest incomes“don’t stand a chance”.
The 16th annual snapshot was the worst so far, Ms Chambers said.
“It’s hard to think what we’ll be here saying this time next year.”
It was up to governments to step up instead of leaving housing to the private sector, Ms Chambers said.
“People tell us frequently about the meals that they have to skip, about not filling prescriptions, about not putting the insurance on the car,” she said.
Anglicare wants an increase in income support, with JobSeeker sitting well under the poverty line, as more people on higher incomes increasingly experience housing stress and face homelessness.
The major parties had committed to spend tens of billions of dollars to address housing supply but this wouldn’t help in the immediate term, Ms Chambers said.
“We can see this year, we have a significant increase in the amount of properties that are actually available – it has not affected affordability in a positive way,” she said.
Long-term reform is needed, including winding back tax breaks for property investors which have been linked to higher housing costs, Ms Chambers said.
FULL STORY
Full-time workers hit by ‘worst ever’ housing crisis (By Dominic Giannini and Lloyd Jones, AAP via Canberra Times)
