Nine Canberra based community groups have joined forces to call on major political parties to pay more attention to affordable housing and homelessness.
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The meeting comes as St Vincent de Paul Society urge politicians to recommit to making amending the Human Rights Act to include adequate housing; a policy it backed away from in 2014.
Labor candidate for Murrumbidgee Brendan Long, an economist at Charles Sturt University, supported the amendment describing it as "practical and achievable".
The meeting was called after groups watched Labor and the Liberals announce funding and policies for tasers, green bins and heritage buildings despite only "a handful of disparate housing policy announcements".
The meeting was attended by the Property Council, Master Builders Association, the Canberra Business Chamber, ACTCOSS, ACT Shelter, Unions ACT, the Australian Institute of Architects, CHC Affordable Housing and Elton Consulting.
The group are expected to release a joint statement on the meeting later this week.
ACT Shelter executive officer Travis Gilbert said the federal government had failed to outline a comprehensive housing policy before the July election.
"[We] will do our level best over the next 10 days to ensure neither the current, nor the alternative government goes to the election without a detailed plan to house all of our people," he said.
St Vincent de Paul's Kym Duggan said the average wait for social housing in Canberra was two years with those considered "high needs" forced to wait even longer.
She said amending the ACT Human Rights Act to recognise housing would show the territory was a national leader on the issue and build a platform to address the issue.
"Currently the act highlights that education is a human right however how is anyone meant to succeed in education without a roof over their head?"
A spokesman for ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the party would consider further expansion of economic, social and cultural rights after the election.
Dr Long said he supported the government's public housing renewal initiative but wanted to see additional efforts to address homelessness.
"The cost of homelessness is too much to ignore," he said. "We can no longer afford to consider homelessness as an out-of- sight, out-of- mind issue."
The Greens have also attacked the major parties for ignoring rental affordability and proposed a new model to allow investors to rent properties below the market rate.
The party has also called for the "Nightingale housing model" to be brought to Canberra, which would require buyers to resell at cost price plus inflation.
