Today, Anti-Poverty Network SA released ‘Broke, Cold, Stressed’, our report outlining the results of our survey of 288 low-income renters, which took place over the winter of 2022.
The results are yet another reminder that our rental market is causing enormous harm to people’s lives, especially the lives of people in poverty.
High rents. Big rent increases. Constant stress. A cost-of-living crisis, right across the board.
It cannot continue. We face a rental emergency, and we need urgent measures: a freeze to rents; a moratorium on rent evictions; strengthened rights for tenants; a massive expansion of public housing stock.
And of course, a raise to JobSeeker and other Centrelink payments.
Here is a link to the full report, and here are some of the main findings:
- 44% were experiencing ‘housing crisis’ – spending more than 50% of income on rent. For people on Centrelink payments, 2 in 3 were experiencing ‘housing crisis’.
- 4 out of 5 people said the amount of rent they paid affected how much they could spend on food.
- 68% said high rents impacted their ability to cover medical costs.
- 3 out of 4 told us they found it difficult to afford to stay warm in winter.
- 2 in 3 felt they were discriminated against when searching for rentals, mostly due to receiving Centrelink payments.
Anti-Poverty Network SA 