Essential care and service workers are facing a rental crisis in Australia as an analysis found that rent has risen to over one-third of workers’ weekly income in a majority of the country’s geographical regions. Affordable housing campaign group, Everybody’s Home, cross-referenced SQM Research rent data with the basic hourly wage of workers in disability care, aged care, childcare, hospitality, and supermarkets. The research (pdf) marked the start of the group’s national Homelessness Week campaign. The figures reveal that the rent of an apartment in nine regions throughout New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT cost more than two-thirds of a working week’s income. A further 78 regions around Australia had rents that cost over one-third of an essential worker’s weekly wage. Everybody’s Home national spokesperson Kate Colvin said Australia’s critically important carers and service workers were being let down by the housing system and priced out of the communities …