Low-income earners disproportionately disadvantaged
Believe Housing Australia’s $13.7 million Panorama development
In April 2025, Anglicare Australia released its annual Rental Affordability Snapshot, which revealed that low-income earners and recipients of income support remained disproportionately disadvantaged.
The Snapshot, taken on 15 March 2025, revealed that large groups of individuals and families competed for only 1,836 private rentals advertised in South Australia. Of the 1,836 listed properties, just 19 homes, or one per cent, were affordable for households on income support payments. For a while for a single person with one or two children on parenting payments, there were no affordable properties. Believe Housing Australia Executive General Manager, Housing Services, Stacey Northover, said the Snapshot confirmed what most South Australians already knew: the shortage of housing, soaring rents, stagnant wages, and inadequate government supports are pushing ordinary people toward homelessness. “When families are forced to choose between shelter and basic essentials like food, medicine, warmth, and hygiene, and the housing market is not just unaffordable – it is unsustainable,” Ms Northover said.
“When families are forced to live in cars, tents, and motels, these are not just individual tragedies – they are social, welfare, cultural, and economic risks that bring long-term consequences for the state.” Government payments were not keeping pace with real-world pressures, she said, and without systemic reform, thousands would remain locked out of safe, secure housing. She said that while every level of government had placed renewed focus on the state’s housing issues, more needs to be done to ensure South Australians have access to the safe, secure, and affordable homes they deserve. “Believe Housing Australia acknowledges and welcomes the work already underway, but the scale of today’s crisis sets a generational challenge that requires a consistent, coordinated, and broad response.”
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