Anglicare Victoria this year surveyed 277 homes advertised for rent in Greater Bendigo for its annual Rental Affordability Snapshot.

An affordable property is considered as one with a rental price that does not exceed 30 per cent of income.

For single people on the Newstart unemployment benefit or Youth Allowance, there were no properties available that were considered affordable.

The Youth Allowance payment for a person aged 18 or older is $445.80 a fortnight.

Related: Rent struggle for single parents

If a single parent on Newstart with one child were to try to find a rental property, just one of the 277 would have been within their means.

Other welfare recipients fared little better: for a single parent on the Parenting Payment with two young children, just 1 per cent of properties were affordable, while 98.9 per cent of properties were too expensive for a single person receiving disability support.

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For couples on the aged pension, 7.9 per cent of properties in Bendigo were within their means, but only 1.1 per cent of properties were affordable for a single aged pensioner.

Even having a job does not guarantee there will be many rental properties within financial reach. Just 2.5 per cent of properties were affordable for a single person earning minimum wage, although parents with children had more options because of the Family Tax Benefits.

The severe shortage of affordable housing available to those relying on welfare payments in Bendigo has an adverse effect on their broader quality of life, the regional director of Anglicare Victoria says.

Francis Lynch said those spending a significant proportion of income on housing would often struggle to pay for other necessities, such as food and utilities.

“People in housing stress are also likely to have flow-on effects of physical health and mental health consequences,” Mr Lynch said.

“It’s very difficult to be well when you experience housing stress.”

Mr Lynch said Anglicare’s youth homelessness team in Bendigo saw about 360 young people each year, many in “very unstable” housing.

Related: Youth struggling to rent

While primary homelessness, or rough sleeping, was not as visible in Bendigo as Melbourne, Mr Lynch said secondary homelessness was a concern.

This includes those couch surfing, staying with friends and family temporarily with little housing security.

Among people experiencing this form of homelessness, Mr Lynch said there had been a particular increase in the number of women with children escaping domestic violence.

Anglicare Victoria’s Rental Affordability Snapshot has been conducted for nine years and Mr Lynch has seen no trend of improvement over that time, with each report showing a consistent lack of affordability.

He noted that rental affordability did remain better in Bendigo than Melbourne, although it was still not good.

Mr Lynch said all levels of government had a role to play in improving the affordability situation.

He hoped the City of Greater Bendigo would reflect on the research and what it could do, adding that the council could support developers to find ways of providing more affordable housing.

State and federal government had policy roles to play, he said.

Mr Lynch added that the Newstart unemployment benefit had grown by only the bare minimum over the past two decades, while in contrast the minimum wage had increased “quite significantly”.