Lack of affordable housing is harming regional Australia, Anglicare chief says

Anglicare’s Kasy Chambers has called for a return to fully publicly funded social housing rather than relying on the private sector and tax schemes. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

The $40-a-fortnight boost to the jobseeker payment increases the number of affordable rentals across all of Australia from just four rooms in share houses to five.

That’s according to the Anglicare rental affordability snapshot, the Anglicare chief executive, Kasy Chambers, told the National Press Club on Tuesday. The 2023 snapshot, released before the federal budget last month, analysed 46,000 rental properties across Australia, based on whether rent would cost more than 30% of the household budget for various low-income households.