Add Category
Canberra's soaring rental prices and the rising cost of living have hit single-parent Krystal Carne hard.
"I'll go without food if I need to," she said.
"Sometimes I have skipped getting necessary medication that I can't afford to get."
Ms Carne has had full-time employment in the ACT Public Service for 11 years.
But recently that hasn't been enough.
And she's not alone.
For the first time, ACT charities are finding full-time public servants, nurses, teachers and police officers are regularly needing their help to make ends meet.
"The struggle is really real because it's living week to week. How am I going to pay my bills?" Ms Carne said.
Ms Carne, 32, lives in a rental house in southern Canberra with her five-year-old son.
She's been based in the ACT all her life and has never seen such financial pressure.
"If I need a bill paid I'm reaching out to my dad or another family member or a friend in the last six months, which is something I've never really had to do," she said.
ACT Council of Social Service's interim CEO Gemma Killen said Ms Carne was part of a growing trend of people in steady but lower-paying jobs requiring help.
"More and more people who are in full-time work just can't afford to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads at the same time," Ms Killen said.
"We've seen nurses but also teachers; a lot of people who work in the community sector as well, so aged care workers.
"A nurse is spending an average of 70 per cent of their income on rent at the moment and I think that's pretty appalling when we know that most nurses are employed in the public service."
Ms Killen said the demographic of people who required services like food pantries had changed in recent times.
"We're used to seeing, in food pantries for example, old people coming to supplement their groceries occasionally," she said.
"Now we're seeing younger families who are in work who need to go to a food pantry to meet all of theirs needs or to get a large portion of their groceries for a week or they don't eat."
Ms Killen said if things didn't change in Canberra's rental market there would be more people who would have to start living in their cars or simply leave the area.
"In the longer term, people will leave the ACT and we won't have the staff to service essential services, to teach our kids, provide health care, things like that," she said.
She called on the ACT government to reconsider the parameters for financial support.
"At the very least we need a proper income support safety net but we also need to re-examine things like utilities concessions and concessions broadly which traditionally have only been available to people who are on income support or pensioners," she said.
"We know that hardship is happening for people who are in work but they're not eligible for concessions."