Anglicare Rental Affordability Snapshot reveals dire situation for Orange renters on low incomes

Anglicare's 2022 Rental Affordability Snapshot shows the city has no affordable rentals for anyone on Jobseeker, Youth Allowance, the Aged Pension or Parenting Payment.

To compile the data, Anglicare's looked at the 82 properties listed for rent in Orange on one weekend in March and tested whether they were affordable for different types of households on low incomes. The snapshot follows the internationally accepted benchmark that rent needs to be no more than 30 percent of a household budget to be affordable.

While the availability of affordable rentals has long been tight for people on government support, this is the first time their options have dried up completely. Aged pensioners, for example, could afford 10 percent of available rentals in 2019. In 2022, they could afford none.

Cassandra Beckingham, who relies on a single parenting payment to support herself and her almost two-year-old daughter, Isabella, says she ended up temporarily homeless when the lease on her private rental ran out.

"I applied everywhere and got nowhere," she said.

"I had everything in my car and was just couch surfing."

The 30-year-old said she was stressed, scared and anxious that her daughter might be taken from her because of her housing situation.

With assistance from Anglicare, Ms Beckingham was put on a priority public housing list and is now in a safe and affordable home.

"Without their help I don't know what I would have done," she said.

"I feel so fortunate because I know there are so many other people who are struggling too."

Among those are people working for the minimum wage, Anglicare's report shows.

Pre-pandemic, a couple with two children on the minimum wage and receiving family tax benefit A and B could afford almost 47 per cent of available rentals. This year, that has slipped to 15 per cent.

The lack of options for those on low incomes has coincided with a tightening of the rental market overall. Since 2016, the number of properties advertised on the weekend of Anglicare's snapshot has fallen by almost 60 per cent - from 201 in 2016 to 82 this year.

Anglicare's Out of Home Care manager for Western region in Orange, Emma Quabba, says the statistics reveal a "catastrophic housing outlook for vulnerable people relying on government supports."

She says regional areas like Orange continue to be affected by significant increases in housing costs which are disproportionately affecting people on low incomes.

"Affordable housing options are extremely limited as rents and house prices have skyrocketed here over the past couple of years.

"It affects everyone, but it impacts those on lower incomes the most, especially if they don't have strong networks of friends and family to support them."

Anglicare is calling for greater assistance for vulnerable families in regional NSW including an increase in social housing options, an increase in government support payments, and greater protections for tenants to protect from the impact of dramatic rent increases.

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