Low-income earners stretched thin as Hunter rental affordability crisis persists

As rents and cost of living pressures continue to rise, times are tough for the 52 year-old Thornton resident.

At the height of the COVID pandemic the house he was renting was sold, and he was given a mere few days to find somewhere to live.

Failing to find permanent accommodation with an unfavourable income, compared to those with a stable cash flow, Mr Crew was forced to live in a tent for three weeks until a rental became available.

"My carer lives with me and we applied for a hundred different places and ended up in a tent until we got a phone call," he said.

Newcastle-based psychologist Michelle Heaton said the impact of rental stress on top of an existing mental health condition could be detrimental.

"If you add other stressors on top - and we know a basic foundation is the ability to have a roof over your head and a safe place to call home - it can be really hard to do any sort of higher level mental health work," she said.

Ms Heaton said there was still stigma existing around mental health in the work place and how it can affect people to get or stay in work.

"We are trying very hard to change that, organisations are getting on board with making reasonable adjustments for people with mental health concerns and working together collectively, but unfortunately it's a slow turn," she said.

Services Australia declares the DSP is an income support payment for individuals with a physical, intellectual and/or psychiatric impairment who are unable to work 15 or more hours per week.

The eligibility for a DSP is based on functional impairment and ability to work, not on diagnosis or specific medical condition alone.

While Mr Crew is unable to work, he is fortunate to have a roof over his head but is surviving on a low income and forced to budget.

A nationally representative survey of Australians conducted by Savvy, found two in five renters are spending over 30 per cent of their weekly income on rent.

Mr Crew is among the 9.2 per cent of renters spending over 61 per cent of their weekly income on rent.

He receives a fortnightly pension of $980 and his rent costs him $400 per week.

"To sort of try to get ahead I pay $10 extra in the rent a week, and water comes out of that, so when I get enough for a week's rent, I go pay it and get a week off so I can buy things I need," he said.

According to CoreLogic the median weekly rental value in the first quarter of 2023 for Newcastle and Lake Macquarie was $615 while it sat at $553 in the Hunter Valley.

Wallsend resident Ali Smith, is struggling with the Hunter's rental affordability crisis on a single parent pension, while caring for her daughter who is living with disabilities.

"I'm in a private rental. I get $1390 a fortnight, my rent went up to $1040 a fortnight - there is nothing leftover," the 40 year-old mother said.

Rebecca Paris, 51, from Toronto says she's facing her third rental increase in two-and-a-half years and is living off her disability pension.

"The next increase is tipped to go over $400 per week for my two bedroom granny flat, that's two-thirds of my DSP. That leaves me with $200 to live on when my medications cost upwards of $100 per week," she said.

"I'm in real danger of becoming homeless and it's frightening. I've never faced something this stressful in all my 20 plus years of renting."

Newcastle University senior lecturer of Sociology doctor Julia Cook says those on lower incomes renting in the private or social housing sector are stretched thin.

"They're paying a larger percentage of their income for those essential things. Those that are unable to work due to disability or due to caring responsibilities would be doing it really tough," she said.

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Dr Cook said while government payments were subsidised to help people live in the private rental sector, they weren't necessarily keeping up with inflation costs.

"There is a high amount of people that are in rental stress which is reactive to the private rental sector and that's really why there is more people waiting for social housing, and there's not enough of it," she said.

Mr Crew is privately renting a three bedroom home and has been on a wait list for social housing for three years.

"That's all that was available, there were very limited options for single people looking for a unit and there's still about six more years of waiting [for social housing]," he said.

He said the Government needed to look at rent assistance for people on benefits in private rentals.

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