And yet the town’s unique homelessness service, the Rae Burgess Centre, continues to have an uncertain future with no sign of recurrent government funding.

Anglicare’s annual Rental Affordability Snapshot report shows that on Saturday April 13, when the Anglicare network surveyed 56,414 rental properties across Australia, less than one per cent of the properties listed were suitable for anyone on Newstart allowance, parenting payment, aged pension or a disability support pension. 

The report defined a suitable rental as one which cost less than 30 per cent of the household’s income, an accepted benchmark of affordability.

The Rae Burgess Centre, unique to Yass, provides a case management service for people at risk of homelessness or experiencing homelessness. In the past year it has helped nine families and three single people in Yass find a long-term home.

“Housing affordability for single parents in Yass continues to be extraordinarily dire,” said Simon Bennett, Anglicare’s director of community services for NSW South and West.

“In the Yass Valley there were far fewer properties advertised on the snapshot weekend compared to previous years, and no properties were affordable to any of the single parent households considered, even those on a minimum wage income.”

It found three properties suitable only for a couple supporting two children earning a minimum wage plus Family Tax Benefit A.

He said it showed government benefits and the minimum wage were completely insufficient to cover costs in the Australian rental market.

A Yass mother-of-three who is currently on the waiting list for community housing agrees. She has been living in a single room at her parents’ home with her partner, a four-year-old and 17-month-old twins.

The Rae Burgess Centre helped place her on a priority waiting list but she has been advised it could be years before a vacancy arises for her family.

She said her only alternative, if the current arrangement broke down, was to approach the family refuge, but it was already full and would involve the family living apart because they could only accept her and the children.

She is taking her concerns to Burrinjuck MP Katrina Hodgkinson today.

She has been advised by social housing provider Argyle Community Housing that she would have to continue to apply for rentals up to 50 per cent of her income.

Mr Bennett said it was disappointing government was failing Yass’ at risk sector.

“We are not asking much of government. The ongoing financial commitment of Anglicare, along with our partners Mission Australia, means that we just need to find another $65,000 to $100,000 per year to ensure the ongoing viability of the service.”

He said unlike other towns in southern NSW, the situation in Yass was directly impacted by Canberra, where a rental affordability crisis has been ongoing for years. 

Waiting times for public housing in the Yass region are one of the longest in southern NSW.

Typically families wait between two to five years, and the wait for one-bedroom properties was even longer. Places like Crookwell and Goulburn-Mulwaree had some property types available in under two years.

"One of the most distressing issues is that we have single parent families paying for rents on the private market far beyond their means. In this scenario it's not surprising they have to turn to charities like Anglicare to put food on the kids' dinner plates."

Rae Burgess Centre trustee Alfred McCarthy said this was why the centre needed to continue.

"It helps people avoid homelessness; it's early intervention and prevention.

It's much better to intervene early rather than waiting until a person is knocking on the door of a refuge."