There has been an increase in the number of NSW households still in rental stress after receiving Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA), with almost half still spending more than 30% of their income on rent, new Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data reveals.
The latest quarterly figures shows the proportion of NSW households in 'no rental stress' after receiving CRA dropped from 58% to 56% equating to 194,335 households out of 442,535 total.
Homelessness NSW CEO Dominique Rowe said the figures demonstrate that even targeted government assistance is failing to shield the state's most financially stretched renters from the housing affordability crisis.
"Commonwealth Rent Assistance is specifically designed to help renters who are most financially stressed, yet almost half are still spending more than they can afford just to keep a roof over their heads," Ms Rowe said.
"These figures show far too many people receiving Commonwealth Rent Assistance are still in rental stress. This is further evidence of a completely broken housing system."
The data comes as separate research released last month by Homelessness NSW showed rental stress is worsening across the state, with 28% of all renters now spending more than 30% of their income on housing – up from 25.5% in 2022-23.
With more than 65,000 households on the social housing waiting list and rents continuing to rise across NSW, Ms Rowe said urgent action is needed to address the housing crisis at its source.
"Commonwealth Rent Assistance is a band-aid solution to a structural problem," she said.
"We need to dramatically increase the supply of affordable housing, starting with social housing, to give people genuine housing security."
Homelessness NSW is calling on the NSW Government to:
Increase social housing stock from 4.7% to 10% of all housing
Deliver a 30% increase in baseline funding for specialist homelessness services
