Anglicare housing report details struggle of low-income earners to secure housing

A new report from charity Anglicare shows that low income earners, including pensioners, are increasingly unable to secure safe and affordable accommodation in the city.

The charity has labelled the housing outlook for Wagga's most vulnerable residents as "catastrophic".

Single mother Beryl Susurua is currently supported by Anglicare and has faced extreme hardship finding housing in Wagga to support both herself and her young son.

Originally from Samoa she sought asylum in Australia and moved from Griffith to Wagga in 2016 when her son was just one week old, housed by Sisters Housing with no family or support network to fall back on.

Ms Susurua now lives in a rental, but her financial struggles are far from over.

"It's really challenging," she said.

"With a low income you [can] hardly pay for the rent, pay for the electricity, pay for the car, and then [you have to] try to manage the little money to survive to get through.

"Sometimes I only have $50 left to take me up to the next fortnight."

Ms Susurua was eventually put in touch with Anglicare who helped her secure housing and still support her with food, transport and childcare costs.

"For me definitely I'm facing housing crisis," she said.

"Without the services Anglicare provide I would be stranded."

Anglicare's annual national rental affordability report looked at 78 properties in the Wagga area and found that for a couple with two children on JobSeeker just 1 per cent of properties were both affordable and appropriate.

For a single aged pensioner just 4 per cent of properties were affordable and appropriate, with the figure dropping even further for single people on a disability support pension (3 per cent) and on JobSeeker (zero per cent).

For single adults on youth allowance, there were no properties considered affordable and appropriate.

The only outlier was couples with two children on minimum wage receiving family tax benefits, with 22 per cent of properties both affordable and appropriate for these households.

Anglicare CEO for Southern NSW and ACT, Jeremy Halcrow, said in recent years rental and housing prices have surged in traditionally affordable areas such as Wagga.

"Many factors have contributed to this including movement of families out of metro areas during COVID lockdowns into more spacious regional properties," he said.

"This has displaced local people and pushed housing affordability further out of reach for those who are most vulnerable."

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Wagga councillor Dan Hayes said it is "disgusting" to see low income earners squeezed out of the rental market.

"The people who own the houses are happy, [but] those trying to enter the market or those trying to rent a house that is safe, secure and suitable for their needs and their family, they're not; they're finding it really challenging," he said.

Cr Hayes said increasing wages is vital in addressing this growing problem.

"We haven't seen real wage increases for many many years," he said.

"Government support needs to be at a level that can match the increasing prices as well."

Cr Hayes said the state government has "dropped the ball" when it comes to providing adequate social housing.

"They've been in government for 10 years now and the actual number of social housing has dropped," he said.

"The ones that they currently do have, we know they don't provide the funding for them to be repaired, to be brought to a certain level or to provide a certain level of comfort for those that do need social housing."

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