Virtually no rentals affordable for essential workers, Anglicare Australia data shows
Only 2.2% of available rentals are affordable for an ambulance worker, and just 0.9% for an early childhood educator or construction worker, according to new data from Anglicare Australia.
The data, released as part of Anti-Poverty Week, provides a snapshot of 45,115 rental listings and found:
696 rentals (1.5%) were affordable for an aged care worker
629 rentals (1.4%) were affordable for a nurse
398 rentals (0.9%) were affordable for an early childhood educator
389 rentals (0.9%) were affordable for a construction worker
352 rentals (0.8%) were affordable for a hospitality worker.
Anglicare’s executive director, Kasy Chambers, said it “should be a national scandal” that “so few of our essential workers can afford to keep a roof over their head”.
Virtually no part of Australia is affordable for aged care workers, early childhood educators, cleaners, nurses and many other essential workers we rely on. It’s no wonder so many critical industries are facing worker shortages.
It’s been clear for years now that the private rental market is failing people on low incomes. Now it’s clear that it’s also failing our key workers – including those who work full-time.
Anglicare is calling on the government to boost social housing and make it an option for more Australians, she said, as well as tax reform “to put people in need of homes, not investors, at the centre of our system”.
Taxpayers should not be funding investors to push up the cost of homes. Momentum is building to change this system once and for all. These results are dire, but they are also an opportunity for change. It has never been more important for governments to take bold action and ensure everyone has a home.
One fix: Get the federal government to take over any in-progress / unfinished high-rise commercial construction projects and fund their conversion to social / public housing instead - before those builds fully complete.
Everyone can see a commercial real estate bust is about to unwind. There's NO POINT in letting those projects finish and then sit empty and unused for the next 5-10 years while Australian's struggle to find a place to live.
We don't need any more empty commercial high-rises yet that's what most of the cranes across Sydney are busy building.
Meanwhile - the federal government complains that councils can't approve homes fast enough (thanks NIMBY idiots) nor do we have enough tradespeople to build homes??!
Maybe because a good portion of the capital and labor are being WASTED ON BUILDING OUT UNNECESSARY COMMERCAL REAL ESTATE?
