Soaring costs of housing and rising rates of family violence in Wimmera are pushing more people in into a cycle of poverty, a new study found.
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The Salvation Army released a nationwide survey this week after it surveyed 1600 people across Australia who sought its assistance. The findings uncovered increasing levels of poverty in rural areas driven by factors including rising housing costs.
It exposed a harrowing snapshot of the realities of daily life for those living in regional and rural areas and pointed to family violence as being the leading cause of housing transiency. Homeless Network Coordinator for the Grampians Region is Jax Roan said there was a dire lack of affordable housing in Wimmera.
“We need more affordable, sustainable and long-term housing,” Ms Roan said. “It doesn’t cut it to give people emergency housing for six weeks because they come out the other side with nowhere to live.”
Ms Roan said family violence was the single largest cause of homelessness and rates of violence in the region were sky-rocketing.
“Women and their children are our biggest client base,” Ms Roan said. “No little child should be forced to sleep in their mum’s car, every child deserves a home.”
She said at the moment government funded social housing equated to just four percent of total housing in Australia.
“There is no government funding into new affordable housing and private rental is out of reach,” Ms Roan said.
The survey found almost 90 per cent of clients went without basic items at times and other families were living off between $14 and $16 a day after paying housing expenses. Almost 65 per cent of the Salvation Army's 2015 emergency assistance clients were female.
Almost 40 per cent were single parents with two or more children and 85 per cent were on a government income support.
One in five were homeless or in temporary accommodation and 40 per cent had moved three times in 12 months.