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Queensland families are skipping meals and working multiple jobs to make ends meet as new research shows there are next to zero affordable homes in Brisbane for those on income support.
The Rental Affordability Snapshot conducted by Anglicare Southern Queensland also found fewer than one in 100 homes were affordable for those on the minimum wage.
The charity’s chief executive, Sue Cooke, said housing affordability across the region was becoming worse every year for low-income earners, and the organisation was supporting more and more struggling people.
“We’re hearing from families who are saying they’re having to make choices about skipping meals, they work multiple jobs, they’ve got overcrowding occurring,” she told this masthead.
“We see young people experience more mental health issues because of having to sleep on floors, not getting a bedroom.
“All of that just starts to float into areas around anxiety, hunger, lack of sleep, they have disrupted education patterns, they’re just worrying every day … it’s just this compounding effect across health and wellbeing.”
The charity examined more than 3000 rentals in Brisbane on a weekend in March.
It used a formula to calculate affordability for various groups based on the “30/40 model”. That defines a household as being in stress when its total income is in the bottom 40 per cent and more than 30 per cent of it is spent on accommodation.
Just nine houses – or about 0.3 per cent – were deemed “affordable” for those on income support under that metric, down from 20 last year.
Just under 1 per cent – 26 houses – were affordable for those on the minimum wage, down from 75 in 2025.
The total number of rentals available also fell about 12 per cent, amid a boom of new residents moving to south-east Queensland and constraints on construction across the region.
“What we’re actually finding is that because of the limited choice … families and young people are having to settle for less than standard living conditions,” Cooke said.
“Some of the families are reporting to us fear of actually making a complaint or making a request to have maintenance done.”
Anglicare’s 17th report focused on the impact on children, and said families that needed to move frequently due to affordability constraints found it harder to build community connections.
“That’s very disruptive … it means moving schools as well, re-establishing networks and friends,” Cooke said. “That disconnection and disruption is very impactful.”
She said Anglicare was pushing all three levels of government for a range of measures, including increased construction of social housing and a boost to income support programs.
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