An urgent call to boost affordable housing has been made by an organization after recent data revealed that most Australian essential workers are unable to afford the rising price of rent.
New data from Anglicare Australia has revealed that of a pool of 45,895 rental adverts across the country, just 2.4% of them were affordable for a paramedic.
Nurses are in even worse shape, with only 666 rentals nationwide within their budget.
Older workers could only reasonably afford 1.1% of available rent, and early childhood educators could only afford 0.9%.
An urgent call to boost affordable housing has been launched by an organization after recent data revealed that most Australian essential workers are unable to afford the rising price of rent
Despite working full-time, people in these professions, as well as hospitality and construction workers, are simply unable to afford most of the rental properties currently on the market, according to the data.
The rent affordability overview revealed that the lowest-paid workers on the list – hospitality workers – could only afford six properties in WA and 70 in Victoria.
Affordable properties for these employees in Victoria were also mostly shared homes.
In New South Wales, social and community workers had just 259 homes to choose from, and hospitality workers had just 233 left, less than 1.5% of the rental market in New South Wales. State.
“Affordability was consistently poor across the country,” the report said.
“In every state and territory, less than three percent of rents were affordable for a community service worker.”
In Tasmania, community service workers could only afford 19 of the available adverts, and workers looking to rent in WA could only afford nine.
Anglicare Australia chief executive Kasy Chambers said data shows essential workers are being pushed into “serious tenancy stress”.
“So many essential industries are facing labor shortages with workers unable to afford to stay or move to areas of the country where those shortages are most severe,” Ms Chambers said.
“These numbers help explain why.
“Hardly any part of Australia is affordable for the older workers, early childhood educators, cleaners, nurses and many other essential workers we rely on. They cannot afford to live in their own communities.
New data from Anglicare Australia has revealed that of a pool of 45,895 rental adverts across the country, just 2.4% of them were affordable for a paramedic.
Australia’s record vacancy rate compounds the problem.
While there were still over 65,000 properties available to rent when the Snapshot study was conducted throughout 2018-21, the vacancy rate in Australia is currently just 0.8% of all the houses.
This has ultimately seen rental prices soar, with states now scrambling to resolve new price spikes caused by potential tenants bidding for rentals.
Ms Chambers said the best way to tackle the rental crisis is to build social and affordable rental housing.
She said the data shows the private market is failing middle-income people, not just low-income people.
“Even though Australia has built a record number of homes over the past decade, rents continue to soar.
“The best way to make rentals more affordable is to build social and affordable housing.
“Building general homes and hoping affordability trickles down just doesn’t work.”
Ms Chambers said the best way to tackle the rent crisis is to build social and affordable rental housing
She called for more affordable housing for essential workers to be developed and for protections for tenants facing unfair rent increases to be put in place.
“We are calling on housing ministers to take action when they meet next week – and to make sure everyone has a place to call home,” Ms Chambers said.
The report also calls for essential workers to be paid higher wages.
“Caring work in the community service industry has historically been undervalued, and this is evident in the low pay rates across the sector,” the report said.
“Increases are needed across the care sector to help recruit and retain a highly skilled workforce, ensure workers are paid a living wage and avoid a situation where workers are moving from place to place. one part of the sector to another, leaving labor shortages elsewhere.
