Anglicare Australia is calling on the Government to build more social housing. The call is made as part of homelessness week.
The cost of housing is soaring. Homelessness keeps going up as a result,” said Anglicare Australia Executive Director Kasy Chambers.
“Each year Anglicare Australia puts out our Rental Affordability Snapshot. This year’s results were the worst we’d ever seen.
“A person on the minimum wage can afford just one percent of rentals – less than half of what was available last year. People out of work are even worse off. They can afford just three rentals out of 74,000.
“We can’t afford to allow these numbers to get worse and worse every year. People are being be pushed into homelessness – and services are already stretched to the limit.
“The Government must invest in social housing. Our shortfall is massive. We need 500,000 new social homes across Australia.
“Investing in housing would be the most powerful way to tackle our housing crisis. We’re calling on the government to take action this homelessness week – and make sure everyone has a place to call home,” Ms Chambers said.
Anglicare Australia’s 2021 Rental Affordability Snapshot found that:
- 1% of rentals were affordable for a person on the minimum wage
- 0.5% of rentals were affordable for a single person on the Age Pension
- 0.3% of rentals were affordable for a person on the Disability Support Pension
- 3 rentals, all sharehouses, were affordable for a person on JobSeeker out of 74,000 listings
- 0 rentals were affordable for a person on Youth Allowance.