AnglicareWA says their 2025 Rental Affordability Snapshot shows the situation is particularly bleak for students and young people.
James McHale, media and public relations lead at Anglicare, says the situation is so bad, rooms in share houses are proving to be out of reach for most welfare recipients.
“We don’t have data on what is available for students and young people because there is nothing,” he says.
“Not a single property, not a single share house that was advertised online over that weekend, is affordable and suitable for a person on Youth Allowance.”
Mr McHale says a decade of research reveals how difficult renting in Australia is for students.
“It’s a 50-year crisis in the making and it’s going to take a long time to turn it around,” he says.
“I went through the reports going back ten years to prepare for this, and there has not been one year where there has been a single affordable property for somebody on Youth Allowance.”
James McHale, AnglicareWA media & public relations lead
Mr McHale says this weekend’s election is a chance for people to push policymakers for action.
“One of the biggest things the government can do instantly is increase the amount of Youth Allowance and other welfare payments to bring it to or above the poverty line. This will allow people to start to build a life and move forward.”
Anya Tutt is a student who recently moved out of home to be closer to university. She says she’s too young to qualify for youth allowance, and so works two jobs alongside her studies.
“I’m lucky to have found a share house that’s affordable and with nice people, but I am working as a receptionist and coaching boxing in the evening to be able to afford it,” she says
A Renters and Housing Union Western Australia member says even the process to qualify for welfare as a young person is difficult.
“If your parents earn a decent amount of money, you can be totally 100% cut off from them in every way and still not qualify but once you are 22 years old you qualify, even if you live with and get financial support from your parents. So, it isn’t even about being supported by them it’s just arbitrary bullshit to reduce the amount they need to spend.”
RAHU will have a stall at The May Day Festival in Fremantle on Sunday, hoping to push for housing affordability reform.