State Budget 2018: Housing Trust tenants facing rent rises revealed in the State Budget will have to find between $4.20 and $6.30 extra a week

MOST Housing Trust tenants facing rent rises revealed in the State Budget will have to find between $4.20 and $6.30 extra a week, but advocates warn it could push many further into poverty.

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MOST Housing Trust tenants facing rent rises revealed in the State Budget will have to find between $4.20 and $6.30 extra a week, but advocates warn it could push many further into poverty.

The rent paid by about 3000 low-income tenants in bedsits or one-bedroom flats will be increased from November, rising by a small amount each week until it reaches 25 per cent of their household income. Currently they pay between 19 and 21 per cent.

Housing Trust Tenants Association assistant secretary Julie Macdonald said the targeted properties were “substandard, smaller dwellings that wouldn’t meet market rent standards anyway” and argued the “outrageous” policy was “hitting the poor” to bolster the Budget bottom line.

Julie Macdonald from the Housing Trust Tenants Association has been a strong campaigner for the paid parking reversal. She is not happy with the government's recent decision.

“Raising rents is going to put a lot of strain on these people,” she said.

“It’s the most vulnerable, poorest people. They’ll probably start turning of their power appliances like heating or cooling because those bills are enormous. These flats are very old and very cold.”

Treasurer Rob Lucas was confronted by an affected tenant on ABC Radio yesterday morning, who said the increase would make it difficult for her to afford groceries each week.

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Asked if he had to have “ice in your veins” to make such decisions as a Treasurer, Mr Lucas admitted that “it helps”.

Government analysis states that 276 of the 3000 low-income tenants survive on the Newstart Allowance, which offers about $40 a day.

Most others receive aged or disability pensions.

Another 500 to 1000 tenants on “moderate” household incomes will face a rent increase to 30 per cent of their earnings.

A Housing SA spokeswoman said the exact earnings threshold was yet to be determined but “any increase will also take into account the circumstances of individual households”. That change will not take effect until 2021.

The spokeswoman said 90 per cent of tenants already paid 25 per cent of their income as rent.