Commonwealth funding cuts are having a crippling impact on homelessness and food donation services in Canberra's south, according to the Young Women's Christian Association of Canberra.
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The organisation has launched an appeal to raise $10,000 to sustain its Food Hub emergency relief service in Tuggeranong after losing 17 per cent of government funding.
The Food Hub program was established three years ago and has provided free meals to those in need ever since. It depends on the time of volunteers – mostly retired women.
"The hub provides a space that looks like a miniature supermarket and has some dignity to it for the 200 families who use it each fortnight," said Frances Crimmins, the executive director of YWCA Canberra.
"We know our Food Hub is meeting a genuine need in the community but with funding cuts we simply can't keep it going without additional community support."
Ms Crimmins said funding was cut when the Department of Social Services defunded community grants, saving $240 million, which prompted the Australian Greens to call for a Senate inquiry.
"We have never received funding from the ACT government and that is something the Commonwealth should have considered along with what places would miss out," Ms Crimmins said.
"That's why there is a Senate inquiry now into the state of the grants as there are some communities who have been left without services funded by the department."
Like many food aid services in the ACT, the Food Hub is placed under increasing strain during the winter months when temperatures drop below freezing at night.
"Often when people visit they find that they are eligible for other services or support such as discounts on energy bills and employment programs, and this really helps them get their lives back on track," Ms Crimmins said.
"Without our Food Hub it would be much less likely those connections would be made."
Ms Crimmins said many young people in Canberra were the main carers in their family and the Food Hub gave them a safe venue to find supplies.
Some community organisations have questioned the territory government's commitment to tackling homelessness in Canberra, despite additional funds allocated to public housing and legal services in the 2015-16 budgets.
ACT Council of Social Services director Susan Heylar said she was concerned not enough had been done to tackle issues of housing affordability and homelessness in the territory.
"We are concerned that the level of funding for some things will not actually be sufficient to address the depth the problems the community faces in unaffordable housing and homelessness," she said.
"While there has been some investment in legal services and in public housing stock, we still need a much bigger contribution."
