Extract from ABC News
Updated
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Jaydn Jardine, Alana Dubois and their son Jay have relied on the Salvos for the past 18 months. (ABC News: Maria Hatzakis)
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According to the report 47,708 homeless Victorians sough assistance in 2013-14. (ABC News: Giulio Saggin)
About 2.5 million Australians are living below the poverty line, according to a Salvation Army report.
The charity surveyed 2,400 people between the ages of 25 and 59.It found on average, people had just under $18 a day to live on after paying for accommodation.
The Salvation Army said the results painted an alarming picture of what was happening to many marginalised Australians.
Policy changes that led to the rental housing market being a little bit more affordable ... would solve a large part of the problem.Major Paul Moulds, Salvation Army
The survey found 75 per cent of respondents had cut down on basic necessities, 59 per cent had delayed or were unable to pay utility bills and 57 per cent had gone without meals.
It also found 68 per cent of those surveyed went without dental treatment and 37 per cent went without medical treatment.
Major Paul Moulds said the average person had just under $18 a day to live on after paying for accommodation.
"If people didn't have to spend so much on housing if there was greater access to affordable housing options in the community, or even if there were some major policy changes that led to the rental housing market being a little bit more affordable for people, then that would solve a large part of the problem," he said.
"People who are on an aged pension or a disability pension are in a slightly better position than the kids we are seeing who are on parenting payments, NewStart allowances, which is people who are unemployed.
"So we have been saying to government, you have to re-look at these because there is very limited indexation there been no real shift in those payments for a long time."
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Jaydn Jardine, Alana Dubois and their son Jay have relied on the Salvos for the past 18 months. (ABC News: Maria Hatzakis)
The Salvation Army said most respondents said a lack of relevant skills, health problems and parenting responsibilities were preventing them from finding jobs.
Jaydn Jardine, from Dutton Park in Brisbane, said without the Salvation Army he, his partner Alana Dubois and their one-year-old son Jay would be lost.
"I'd probably still be on the streets and we probably would have lost him (Jay) to child safety," he said.
"I've been coming here probably 18 months and they've been helping us with food, people to talk to, the community environment and all that sort of stuff."
Primary school teacher Georgina Graham from Ipswich, west of Brisbane, turned to the Salvos after being out of work for almost three years.
"I never thought that an educated teacher would ever be in this situation," she said.
"I finally bit the bullet and saw them in mid March, pride came a lot into play.
"I found it, well, 'I can't go there it's for the homeless, it's not for me'.
"Once the cupboard is bare, the fridge is bare, what do you do?
"I had to seek help from someone, somewhere, so I took the step and walked into the Salvos."
The poverty report was released in the lead up to the Salvation Army's annual Red Shield Appea
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