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"The last time was $418.36."
Budgeting is a battle when there’s nothing left to spare.
For Perth single mother Emily Clements, every week feels like a calculation of survival.
She’s raising two neurodivergent children on her Centrelink parenting payment, which is about $800 a week.
"My rent is $850 a week… so already my whole Centrelink payment has already gone to the rent. I don't save anything, I don't have any savings. The additional money will come from my parents, if something pops up, like my car if there is a flat tyre."
Ms Clements works part-time in administration.
But every dollar she earns reduces her pension.
"We've got some money here we can use. Some fake money… gosh, wouldn’t it be nice if it was real."
Saving for a home deposit is a thought she’s learned to push away.
And the guilt hits hardest when she thinks about providing for her kids.
"I actually try not to think about it because it makes me feel like a huge failure. It’s never been on my radar… that I couldn’t provide for my kids."
It wasn’t always like this.
Ms Clements says she grew up in a mid-level wealthy family.
She’s been renting for the past decade, but in the past few years her rent went from $380 a week to $850 today.
And the competition is fierce.
She’s been to several home opens recently — each she says, with more than 40 people lining up.
"I went to one home open, I was waiting to ask a question to the real estate agent ... as I was waiting there a lady was already talking to him who said she had just sold her property and had $600,000 in her savings, so she was happy to pay a whole year of rent in advance.. so they are the type of people I am competing with."
National Shelter’s latest Rental Affordability Index shows this pressure is happening across the country.
While interest rates have steadied, affordability isn't easing quick enough.
John Engeler, from National Shelter, says the solution has to come from every level of government.
"These are the types of things state governments can do — and when you back it in with what the Commonwealth can do, both through leadership and schemes like build-to-rent and national rental laws, and other ways the Commonwealth itself can make a difference - that's what we'd like to see."
But in many cities, especially Sydney and Perth, that difference can’t come fast enough.
In Sydney, the pressure is just as intense.
Forty-two-year-old Charlotte Karlsson-Jones came to Australia from Sweden at 19 as a student.
More than two decades later, she’s a single mother still renting — and still struggling.
"For me as a first-generation immigrant… my parents aren’t in the property market. We don’t have the luxury others in my generation have had. We’re already far behind."
Working part-time, she earns $2,000 a fortnight.
$1,200 of that goes straight to rent.
"Older women have for a very long time sort of been the most high risk of ending up as homeless, or in social housing, so I think that's not something we address by housing for older women. I think we address it way earlier in a woman's life in terms of their opportunites to go to work and support themselves."
And it’s not just families feeling the strain.
Businesses are struggling to attract staff who simply can’t afford to live anywhere near where they work.
Cafe owner Ie-Tehn Kwee sees the flow-on effects every day.
"The issue is there are less houses available than people need. And some people own way more houses than they can live in. And if those houses were more available, things would ease."
Western Australia's Housing Minister, John Carey, says the state’s economy and population growth are behind the pressure — and insists the government is “doing everything it can.”
He points to $5.8 billion in housing investment and 3,800 social homes delivered over four years.
The Federal Government says it recognises more needs to be done — but argues it is increasing supply through national housing funds and by partnering with the states to build more rental homes.
For families like Emily’s, big plans and long-term promises don’t change the immediate uncertainty.
“I love you.”
This may well be their last Christmas in this rental.
With her lease ending in three months and hundreds competing for each listing, eviction is a very real possibility.
