Maitland needs more affordable housing, a Hunter branch of the charity Samaritans says.
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The organisation released a study recently that showed none of the 439 rental properties available in the Maitland local government area last month were affordable or appropriate for families with one or more children who were dependent on government benefits.
Samaritans corporate services director Lynne Graham said families who depended on government payments were among the most vulnerable people in the community.
She said these people could easily fall into a cycle of poverty if they did not have adequate support and accommodation options.
“This is just part of the disappointing statistics around affordable housing in the region,” Ms Graham said.
“Affordable housing comes down to how much weekly income people spend on rent.
“The majority of the available rentals in the Maitland area are simply too costly for those on low incomes or support, leaving too little for other expenses such as utilities, food, transport, medicine and the like.
“Samaritans too often sees people coming to us for emergency relief assistance because they’ve spent so much of their income on rent they can’t afford to put food on the table or pay their electricity bill.”
In the study, housing was deemed affordable if the residents were spending 30 per cent or less of their weekly income on rent.
Maitland City Council has been working to provide affordable housing in central Maitland.
Council has used a subsidy, funded by a federal government grant, to encourage developers to build affordable housing in the city. The initiative allows the properties to be leased at 80 per cent of their market value.
The first block of 36 apartments, which have been rented to people who fit the financial criteria, opened in Steam Street last year.