The Rural Housing Network initiative is in response to what it considered an extremely competitive rental market on the Border, especially Wodonga.

That is where Junction Support Services has said that if you don’t have a rental reference, as most young people didn’t, this was “as bad as having a bad rental reference”.

Junction youth services manager Katharine Hodgens said the advocate “has been really great”, but “we probably need to have some incentives for real estate agents to take on young people especially, but even those who are single parents regardless of their age.”

In Albury, the Department of Family and Community Services has established a close working relationship with real estate agents.

“It wasn’t there some years ago,” housing manager Michael Whiteside said.

“But over the years we’ve broken down a lot of those stereotypes.”

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