Leading charity St Vincent De Paul has warned an urgent increase in affordable housing is needed in Canberra to prevent a homelessness crisis in the near future.
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Statistics from St Vincent De Paul claim homelessness has risen significantly since 2012. Despite this increase, they say levels of social and crisis housing have not grown since 2012.
"Homelessness is spiralling out of control, and we need to take control," Barnie Van Wyk, ACT St Vincent De Paul chief executive officer, said.
"Unless we have some affordable housing and support for people that are homeless in the very near future, and there's definitive decisions being made by the local government, next year will be really difficult for us," he said.
"The big gap for us is supported accommodation, transitional accommodation and access to ACT public housing, you can send us 100 people and we'll engage with them, but ultimately if we don't have that ability to move them in or onto that next stage then that's a problems." Streets Homes Program case manager Tim Coxhead said.
St Vincent De Paul operates during Canberra winter period, providing the homeless with food and thermal gear. After 2 months they had already handed out 75 to 80 per cent to the total figure given away last year.
"This year it's been particularly notable how many referrals we've had," Mr Coxhead said.
"The sector is stretched, anyone in the sector will tell you we're stretched," Mr Van Wyk said.
St Vincent De Paul recently raised $452,000 in a CEO sleep-out, and start-up charity Spare 10 has raised $8,000 in the past two months. Despite community outreach resources are still overextended.
"We've got over 350 different thermal items this year," Emma Madsen, co-runner of Spare 10, said.
"Most of them are already gone," she said.
Spare 10 is an organisation that works closely with St Vincent De Paul to provide suitable belongings for those sleeping rough in Canberra.
A separate national survey by Mission Australia that included responses from Canberrans was due to be released on Thursday. That report shows those with a probable serious mental illness were 3.5 times more likely to be homeless.
"Without a roof over your head you're not going to move forward, the issue is that if you're homeless with mental health issues it is not a conducive environment to any form of recovery," Mr Coxhead said.
"This is a local government, a community and a sector responsibility, and unless we are all going to work together and I mean really work together to address the situation, then we are not going to win this one," Mr Van Wyk said.
The ACT government was contacted for comment.
