Fed: No affordable homes for welfare recipients: Anglicare

AAP General News (Australia)
04-23-2010
Fed: No affordable homes for welfare recipients: Anglicare

CANBERRA, April 23 AAP - Young people, single parents and the unemployed all struggle
to find an affordable rental home, a major social welfare charity says.

Anglicare Australia's state and territory offices looked at advertisements for rental
properties in their local newspapers earlier this month.

The organisation's executive director Kasy Chambers said the results of their in-house
survey, released on Friday, revealed there were virtually no homes listed that welfare
recipients and single parents could reasonably afford.

Ms Chambers said rent more than 30 per cent of a person's limited income was generally
regarded as not economical.

On that basis, Anglicare found there was no affordable housing for Youth Allowance
or Austudy beneficiaries in Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra and Tasmania.

Almost no options existed for a single parents with children, or even an unemployed
person, in Tasmania, while the situation worsened in Adelaide and Brisbane.

Only two properties were suitable for anyone at all on a low income in Canberra.

Ms Chambers said where accommodation was classified as affordable, it was usually for
single aged and disability pensioners, who receive slightly higher welfare payments.

"In the vast majority of cases it was for rooms in share houses," she said.

"In Australia's tight rental market, aged and disability pensioners are unlikely to
be the first priority of any group house."

Ms Chambers pointed out the survey did not take into account the condition of homes
people on low incomes were forced to live in, or of additional costs associated with them
- such as power bills.

"Access to safe, secure and affordable housing underpins the capacity of us all to
make a positive contribution to our society," she said.

"If we are to become a truly inclusive society we need to grow the supply of social
and affordable housing in all our communities."

The results of Anglicare's survey come a day after the National Union of Students (NUS)
released the results of a similar inquiry into housing affordability.

It asked almost 1000 university goers about housing matters during their first week
back on campus, earlier this year.

Of those who took the questionnaire and lived out of home, 66 per cent believed the
stress rent placed on their personal budgets was extreme.

AAP bsb/sb/ht

KEYWORD: HOUSING

� 2010 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.