Anglicare's last Rental Affordability Snapshot has shown rental affordability in Tasmania has declined, despite a 41-per-cent rise on advertised rental properties from last year.
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Additionally, the report showed rents were rising 10 times faster than income support payments and more Tasmanian children were being forced into homelessness.
The 2023 snapshot analysed the rental market over a weekend in March against 14 low-income household types.
It found there were no affordable and appropriate properties at all for four of the low-income household types, including people on Youth Allowance and Jobseeker.
It found that less than 0.5 per cent of properties were affordable or appropriate for another four low-income household types.
The study found a single parent with a young child would have found just three affordable two-bedroom properties across the state over that particular March weekend and a single parent with two children could afford fewer than 1 per cent of three-bedroom properties, even if they worked full time on the minimum wage.
Ninety properties were affordable for a single person on the minimum wage, but most were sharehouses.
Fifty-one properties were affordable for someone on the age pension or disability support pension, however, all but three were sharehouses.
Anglicare's Social Action and Research Centre co-ordinator Mary Bennett said the snapshot revealed a widening gap between the rents being charged and the amount that people on low incomes could afford.
"It also highlights a range of other barriers," she said.
"For example, sharehouses were advertised, but are not suitable for all people.
"It's also not appropriate to move to a remote area where people won't have access to employment or family supports."
Ms Bennett said Anglicare recommended that the state government established and used a transparent investment framework that responded to market conditions to ensure an ongoing supply of affordable housing.
"A new framework could draw on data such as the rental vacancy rate, rental prices and the number of Tasmanians relying on income support payments to determine the need for public investment in affordable housing," she said.
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