Anglicare snapshot reveals only one ‘affordable’ inner city home
A snapshot of Sydney’s rental properties over a single weekend found less than one per cent are available to people on income support including aged pensions, Newstart and disability payment.
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Out of the 2523 properties available for private rent on a single weekend last month, only one in inner city Sydney was deemed affordable for someone on income support.
In a snapshot of Sydney’s rental market conducted by Anglicare on the weekend of March 23 and 24, it was revealed less than one per cent of available homes were affordable for people on low incomes.
The study defined an “affordable” property as one that costs 30 per cent or less of household income to rent. It considered anyone paying more than that to be under “housing stress”.
The statistics laid bare the struggle people receiving welfare including aged pensions (who would spend $225 per week at 30 per cent of their income), disability support ($157) and Newstart ($89 for a single person) face keeping rooves over their heads, with some having to spend up to 45 per cent of their income on rent to afford a home in the city.
Anglicare Sydney chief executive Grant Millard said that did not leave much room for food, utilities, transport costs and unexpected bills.
“While the overall pool of rental properties has increased, less than one per cent are affordable for the people who turn to us for support,” he said.
“For many, keeping a roof over their head means spending 30 per cent or more of their income in rent, pushing them into rental stress.”
For those on minimum wage, there were only 20 homes deemed affordable and acceptable scattered throughout suburbs including Surry Hills, Redfern, Newtown, Glebe, Alexandria and Marrickville. That was compared to six in March 2018.
There were 79 properties available for people relying on welfare who were prepared to push themselves into “housing stress” but not into “extreme stress” — more than 50 per cent of their income.
It was a similar story across eastern and south eastern Sydney, where Anglicare found no properties that were affordable for someone on income support.
There were 19 properties available for people on minimum wage in suburbs including Bondi, Randwick, Paddington, Woollahra and Waverley, and 422 if they wanted to spend between 30 and 45 per cent of their weekly income.
The shocking data came despite a significant jump in listings across Sydney compared to 12 months ago — there were 22,653 identified as being available for private rent last month compared to 17,395 at the same time in 2018.
In total Anglicare’s snapshot revealed only 66 of the 23,921 properties for rent across Sydney, the Central Coast and the Illawarra were affordable and appropriate for people on income support.
Of those 50 were in Sydney and 16 in the Illawarra.
“Australia needs to see changes across the housing spectrum. For too many people, paying the rent means they can’t afford to eat decent food, fill a prescription, pay for transport or buy clothes,” Mr Millard said.
“Instead of supporting people to live, keeping a roof over their head often means entrenching many in poverty.
“And now older Australians are getting stuck in expensive and insecure rentals — at a time in their life when stability is more important than ever.”
There were only seven properties suitable for rent for single people in aged pensions, 11 for couples on Newstart with two children, and one for single parents with two children receiving parenting support payments.
No properties in Sydney or the Illawarra were deemed affordable for a single person on parenting payments, the disability pension, Newstart or Youth Allowance.
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