A return to pre-coronavirus Centrelink payments would almost entirely lock young welfare recipients out of the Riverina housing market, a study has found.
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Anglicare's annual Rental Affordability Snapshot, released on Thursday, found not a single property in the Riverina Murray was affordable for a young person on JobSeeker or Youth Allowance.
This has been the grim reality for young people for each of the 11 years Anglicare has compiled the report.
Young people on JobSeeker or Youth Allowance would experience financial hardship if they had to pay more than $90 or $72, respectively, on weekly rent.
The cheapest rental property advertised on the weekend of March 21 was a small unit in Junee for $110 a week.
Wagga's Jai White had to move out on his own when he was 16 after a family breakdown.
Mr White spent a few months couch-surfing between friends' houses and his sister's place while finishing school in Wagga.
"It was a bit tricky ...while I was moving around and things were a bit difficult I was trying to do my HSC as well," he said.
"I was thinking about what I wanted to do when I finished school but definitely finishing Year 12 was definitely the main thing."
Mr White, who is now 18 and about to start a carpentry apprenticeship, has been living in a unit for two years.
He said he was lucky to find a place to live quickly with the help of his case worker.
Out of 523 private rentals analysed in the report, 66 per cent were affordable for at least one type of household on minimum wage, while only 28 per cent were affordable for at least one type of household receiving income support payments.
Some welfare recipients, including those on JobSeeker, Austudy or Youth Allowance, will receive an extra $550 a fortnight until September as the federal government tries to navigate the COVID-19 crisis.
This supplement takes the maximum JobSeeker rate to about $1100 a fortnight and Youth Allowance to about $1012.
If the new rate were to be made permanent, the report said, it would improve the high rates of poverty in unemployed people and young people living alone.
A single person on JobSeeker would then be able to afford a weekly rent of $173 as opposed to $90. This would mean that 49 rentals would be affordable and appropriate across the region - still a low number but much higher than the current rate of zero.
Mr White, who has been on Youth Allowance since he had to leave home, said the payment increases "need to stick around for a bit".
"It does help, with me, and will in the future," he said.
"I think it will help in all aspects and definitely housing ... especially in situations like mine, to find accommodation in Wagga," he said.
Anglicare's Amy Lanham said young people who had to choose between an unstable home and housing risk would already be experiencing a level of trauma.
"Without assistance, these young people have very options open to them and will likely end up couch surfing or sleeping rough," Ms Lanham said.
In NSW, she said, the number of people experiencing homelessness aged between 12 and 18 increased by 32 percent from 2011 to the most recent census in 2016.
