Documents released under freedom of information laws show 1421 ACT Housing tenants were behind in their rent at the end of last month.

But figures provided by the Community Services Directorate indicate that the amount of rent arrears has fallen from almost $1.5 million at the same time last year.

And in 2012 13.22 per cent of tenants were in arrears compared to 12.77 per cent this financial year.

Public housing tenants are considered to be in arrears when the rent owing reaches $500 or rent has not been paid for more than four weeks.

Housing and Community Services executive director Bronwen Overton-Clarke said this year's figure represented the typical amount of rent arrears ACT Housing had recorded in the past two or three years.

She said before the global financial crisis of 2008 the amount was less than a million dollars, but since the 2009-10 financial year it had risen well above this level.

''I guess the fact that it's gone down shows we're certainly very aware of it and we monitor it very closely,'' Ms Overton-Clarke said.

''It's not insignificant, it's over $100,000.''

She said Housing and Community Services aimed to recoup all of the arrears, which represented just 0.2 per cent of the rent money collected each financial year from more than 11,000 tenants.

But she said it could be a very slow process.

Public housing tenants pay 25 per cent of their income in rent.

Tenants paying off arrears cannot be asked to pay more than 30 per cent of their income on rent and repayment.

Ms Overton-Clarke said the government would write off some of the amount when tenants disappeared and couldn't be found, and the directorate would also evict others as "a last resort".

There have been 20 evictions due to debt this financial year.

She said the reduction in the number of tenants paying market rent - due to a crackdown on high-earning households - may in the long run effect the amount of arrears as more low-income tenants take their place.

The ACT government issued notices to vacate to about 95 public housing tenant households earning more than $80,000 in 2012.

But she said those paying market rent only represented 7 per cent of public housing tenants in the ACT.

The FOI documents also showed a break-up of four ACT Housing Tenancy regions.

As of May 22 Southern residents owed $592,057, Northern residents $364,536 and Central residents $323,190.

About 115 tenants in ACT government housing initiatives owed $119,707.