Housing and homelessness bodies who have had their funding cut by the Abbott government say they do not know how they will continue to do their work beyond June.
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Homelessness Australia, National Shelter and the Community Housing Federation of Australia found out just before Christmas that they would not have their federal funding renewed - even though the Department of Social Services has confirmed it finds their advice valuable.
Together, they have received about $825,000 a year from the Commonwealth, which made up about 90 per cent of their overall funding.
The groups say that if the government was serious about being more consultative, it should restore the funding because they provide evidence-based police advice on low-income and vulnerable people.
National Shelter chief executive Adrian Pisarski told a Senate inquiry on Wednesday that "beyond June 30, we face an uncertain future".
His organisation, which advocates for housing for low-income Australians, said that the most likely scenario for National Shelter was that it would not have any staff beyond the middle of the year.
Community Housing Federation Australia executive director Carol Croce said she was in the process of closing the Canberra office, which does policy work for the federation. Three staff are due to lose their jobs by the end of June.
She said her organisation would continue in a "very limited capacity" and that she was not sure how it would develop policy and work with government.
Homelessness Australia chief executive officer Glenda Stevens said that the focus on survival was taking attention away from "what we really should be doing".
"It's such a waste," she said.
Greens Senator Scott Ludlam described the situation as a "really bad call" and called on the government to reinstate the funding, which was cut under former social services minister Kevin Andrews.
"You won't have anybody to engage with," Senator Ludlam told departmental officials.
"These organisations are being taken out of the game".
Department of Social Services deputy secretary Felicity Hand told the Senate inquiry that officials found the advice of the organisation valuable, but said "ultimately, it was a government decision".
On Wednesday, new Social Services Minister Scott Morrison said that the government was focusing grant funding towards front line services, due to budget constraints.
"Having inherited Labor's legacy of debt and deficit the government's focus in relation to grants funding under the Department of Social Services is on funding organisations that deliver critical frontline services," Mr Morrison said.
He added that the federal government was continuing to provide about $1.3 billion a year to states and territories through the National Affordable Housing Agreement, and about $4.4 billion a year to 1.3 million individuals and families though Commonwealth Rent Assistance.
Mr Morrison said the grant funding had no impact on the Affordable Housing Agreement or National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness.
