HIGH housing costs are driving Victorian households to seek emergency relief for basics like food parcels and bills, according to a coalition of welfare and housing groups.
Australians for Affordable Housing (AAH) says research shows Victoria's emergency relief agencies are seeing up to 600 households seeking housing assistance, with over half citing higher housings costs as the reason.
It says Victoria's emergency relief services also report that 80 per cent of clients are paying at least half their income on rent, leaving little for bills and food.
AAH campaign manager Sarah Toohey said emergency relief services are meant to be able to help households during a one-off crisis.
"But what they're seeing is households pushed into crisis, week after week by their rent," she said.
"When 50 to 60 per cent of your income is spent on housing costs, there is very little left.
"Not only do we need to increase the supply of low cost rental housing, we need to make sure people in the private rental market aren't pushed into poverty."
Ms Toohey said across Australia, over 850,000 renters are facing similar cost pressures.
"The problem of housing stress is at crisis point for low and middle income families, and unless we act to improve housing affordability for everyone, people will continue to struggle to afford to pay for the basics."
AAH is a coalition of national housing, welfare and community organisations formed to highlight the problem of housing affordability.
