A Canberra emergency shelter has blamed the relocation of public housing tenants for a spike in the number of homeless people seeking shelter this winter.
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The volunteers in the three shelters of St Columba's, All Saints and the Salvation Army, run by Safe Shelter, have provided emergency overnight shelter for 312 "guest nights" over the past 19 weeks, compared with 92 "guest nights" over the same period last year, a more than three-fold increase.
More than 55 people with nowhere to sleep have used the three shelters, which now offer people somewhere to sleep five nights a week.
Safe Shelter coordinator Richard Griffiths blames the ACT government's relocation of public housing tenants, saying "couch surfers" in public housing now have nowhere to stay.
"A lot of the public housing apartments along Northbourne Avenue and around Civic have been relocated, but all the others that may have been sleeping rough or couch surfing in the flats weren't offered new locations," he said.
"So it's possible that this is where part of this extra number comes from."
But Housing Minister Yvette Berry said no couch surfers or "non-residents" had been identified at Northbourne, Braddon or Turner so far.
When public housing tenants were moved, Housing ACT had asked them whether they knew others who needed help or whether they were concerned about anyone.
When Safe Shelter had reported a rise in rough sleepers in May, she had asked for an immediate assessment of the suggestion and had been told there was no indication of a rise in rough sleeping.
The ACT had the lowest rate of rough sleeping in the country, she said.
Mr Griffiths said the couch surfing suggestion had come from some of the homeless people seeking shelter.
Without adequate services, homeless people were pushed to move outside of Canberra in search for somewhere warmer, affecting their ability to get housing in the future.
"I think to get on the public housing list you have to be a resident for six months and if you don't maintain the residency you go back to the bottom of the waiting list," Mr Griffith said.
The problem of homelessness went much further than people seeking emergency shelter, he said, with Safe Shelter now seeing women, couples, the homeless in other parts of the city, people with dogs and couch surfers.
The three shelters are in Braddon and Ainslie. Next winter, one of the three shelters will be open every night of the week from late April till the end of September.
The ACT government holds a summit on housing affordability and homelessness in October.
