People sleeping rough do come to Canberra in the hope of finding a better life, local services say, but they are often disappointed as the territory grapples with a "bottleneck" in crisis accomodation.
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The sector has responded to comments made by ACT Housing Minister Yvette Berry in a Legislative Assembly estimates hearing this month, when she defended the territory government's "great" work on affordable housing, and said "more and more people" were now flocking to the ACT "because we have such a positive message when it comes to supporting people who are at risk of . . . or experiencing homelessness".
On Tuesday, Ms Berry said she had heard about 25 per cent of people seeking support from homelessness services came from interstate.
Chief executive Barnie Van Wyk of the St Vincent De Paul Society in Canberra, which runs the Street to Home program for rough sleepers, confirmed about 30 per cent of its 94 clients in the past six months had recently arrived from elsewhere.
But while services in Canberra were "very good" and well supported by the government, he said waiting lists for public housing were also years long and crisis accomodation largely full.
"I find it hard to believe people are braving our freezing Canberra winters just for our hospitality," Mr Van Wyk said.
St Vincent and other services said that, while people had long sought out a bed in Canberra, they often seemed drawn by the ACT's reputation rather than the reality of life on its streets.
"There is a view that things are better here as the nation's capital, and people do have it good here, but there's also huge demand for services in the ACT," Chris Redmond of Woden Community Service said.
The service helps run OneLink, the first point of contact for those experiencing homelessness in Canberra, and Mr Redmond said it sometimes supported people back to their home state when they realised they didn't meet the minimum six-month residency requirement for public housing.
Director of the ACT Council of Social Services Susan Helyar said crisis services designed for short stays faced a "bottleneck" when people remained on the public housing wait list with no where affordable to move out to.
"The ACT government has invested in some good intiatives, but we need thousands more affordable rentals."
Ms Berry has said she will reveal the government's strategy on affordable housing later in the year, but services say they have yet to see a "shortlist" of possible initiatives.
"The whole sector is really waiting with bated breath," Mr Van Wyk said.
A number of frontline services including the Early Morning Centre run by the Uniting church and the Orange Sky Laundry, said they tended to see more new faces appear around winter, when life on the street got hard.
"People come to Canberra because they expect there'll be houses...and people who are housing insecure do move around a lot," director of the Uniting centre Nicole Wiggins said.
"But homelessness is such a huge problem [in the ACT]. People will say 'what do you mean there's not enough beds, this is the nation's capital'."
"There are some good services here but there's a blockage in crisis beds at the moment, you're not going to come here just for a hot breakfast."
At Safe Shelter, which is opening its doors to men sleeping rough every night through winter, demand for the service has already climbed from the same time last year, despite offering two extra nights a week.
Since late April, the service says it has filled 219 spaces, helping more than 40 men in total.
The Orange Sky laundry drops by Safe Shelter each Tuesday and Canberra manager Noreen Vu said many people who used the washing and shower service had travelled from interstate. Some cited Canberra's support services as their reason for the move, she said.
The ACT has one of the higher rates of homelessness in the country, though that number has fallen between the 2011 and 2016 census.
Ms Berry told ABC radio the state of homelessness in the ACT had improved since 2016.
