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Five graphs show how housing insecurity is hammering Sydney families
By Max Maddison
Worsening housing insecurity has seen more than one in five disadvantaged people surveyed turfed out of their rental properties through termination or non-renewal of their leases, pushing many living on the brink into the houses of friends and family, a damning new report has revealed.
Titled Impossible Choices: Decisions NSW Communities Shouldn’t Have To Make, the annual NSW Council of Social Services (NCOSS) report on cost-of-living pressures demonstrates how cascading year-on-year stress of the dual squeeze of cash rate rises and stubborn inflationary pressures has compounded financial hardship.
The survey of 1086 people in the first half of this year found 82 per cent of low-income households and those living below the poverty line had no savings for emergencies, and were sacrificing meals, personal care, hygiene items and prescribed medication.
More than nine out of 10 single parents on low incomes have gone without essentials over the past 12 months due to cost-of-living pressures, nearly three in four households sacrificed spending on their children, while 52 per cent forewent expenditure on health and wellbeing essentials, and one in five delayed early childhood education.
The National Accounts for the June quarter released on Wednesday outlined the savings rate had plunged to a 17-year low, hovering at 0.6 per cent, or just 60 cents of every $100 earned.
The NCOSS survey illustrated the manifestation of the state’s struggle with excess demand for housing and anaemic supply. Once again, housing was identified as the area of expenditure most under pressure over the last year by respondents, jumping by 20 percentage points to 30 per cent.
For tenants, 70 per cent of those surveyed had experienced a rent increase, up from 63 per cent in 2023. The cost of the housing crisis was illustrated by 20 per cent of single parents surveyed who had moved in with friends and family due to cost. There was a significant year-on-year increase in renters surveyed who had their lease terminated or not renewed.
NCOSS chief executive Cara Varian said the survey highlighted a year-on-year degradation of low-income households to cover their costs, saying any additional income had not “touched the side of rent hikes”.
“There’s a sense of shame pertinent in reading through the interviews. A trade-off between feeding their kids, paying their medicines and getting their children to school,” she said.
Varian applauded the state government’s investment in social housing. But she called for the federal government to lift the level of income support payments.
NCOSS reported one family said: “My family go without groceries for weeks on end and often don’t eat dinner four to five nights a week.”
Another single person told interviewers: “I don’t eat three meals a day and have lost weight. I don’t go out at all, I have started feeling isolated as I can’t do things I want to do with friends.”
Nearly half of those surveyed had sought financial assistance from friends or family, while 39 per cent had been forced to pawn or sell belongings.
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