Yet another report had backed up what many people already know the housing crisis and rental affordability is the worst it's ever been. The not-for profit organisation Anglicare which helps people in need, found people on youth allowance are being forced into homelessness, with not a single property anywhere in the country or even a room, considered affordable.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Kaitlin worked to help people facing homelessness, but late last year she almost ended up joining
00:09them. With bills mounting up, a rent hike pushed her to the brink.
00:14I felt like I'd let my family down. I felt like, in a strange way, like I'd almost let
00:21the sector down.
00:23Kaitlin scraped by thanks to a WA state government rent relief program, but around the country
00:29her story is a familiar one.
00:31A new report from the charity Anglicare has found it's never been harder to find an affordable
00:37rental, especially for low-income earners. It found average rents are $200 a week higher
00:43than pre-pandemic levels. For a single parent on the minimum wage, more than 98% of rentals
00:50are considered unaffordable, costing more than 30% of a person's income.
00:56It's impossible to do your homework as a young kid if you are living in a car. It's
01:00very difficult for you to manage your health and your asthma, for example, if you're living
01:05in an apartment with mould.
01:07Anglicare says it's a direct result of low vacancy rates and persistently high interest
01:13rates. There just aren't enough homes and it wants the federal government to step up
01:18and play a greater role.
01:20To do that we actually need to get governments back into building housing. Not just trying
01:24to incentivise private organisations or small landlords to do so, but actually building
01:31it themselves.
01:32The Federal Housing Minister says the government is already working with states and territories
01:37to deliver a broad and ambitious housing reform agenda sometime this year. It's also promised
01:43to build more than a million social homes by the end of the decade.