Australian students trying to live away from mum and dad are getting by with about $13 to spend on food, medical and transport costs, according to new analysis from Homelessness Australia.
The two-year longitudinal analysis looks at a student renter living on Youth Allowance payments, comparing their income to the rising cost of rent on a shared two-bedroom unit across the country.
The tiny amount of cash left after rent means many young people struggle to eat three meals a day, before even thinking about how to pay for travelling to and from study or buying their textbooks, Homelessness Australia CEO Kate Colvin told AAP.
"They struggle with the cost of participating in education," she said.
The cost also greatly affects regional students, who are missing out on the opportunity to move to the city for education opportunities as the cost-of-living prices them out, she said.
Two years ago, an average student previously spent close to two-thirds of their income on rent for sharing a two-bedroom unit.
Now, close to three-quarters of a student's income is funnelled into rent, leaving them with little for essentials.
While youth allowance payments have increased by ten per cent in the past two years due to CPI indexing, rents also surged by 24 per cent.
The average split on a two-bedroom unit is now $245.50, up from $198 in April 2021.
Many students are finding it increasingly difficult to secure a rental, as landlords assess them as having small incomes and being undesirable tenants, Ms Colvin said.
"What we see is more and more young people coming to homelessness services, but actually it's also harder for homeless services to support young people into a rental because landlords just will not rent to someone on such a low income," she said.
The analysis has been released to coincide with Youth Homelessness Matters Day, as welfare organisations call on the federal government to develop a standalone strategy to address youth homelessness.
The groups say the federal government needs to urgently raise the rate of Youth Allowance and Austudy, which is currently $562.80 a fortnight for a single student with no children.
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