The St Vincent de Paul Society has called on all governments to do more to ease housing costs as Santa delivered Christmas presents to the charity via a tram in Gungahlin on Friday.
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The big man in red delivered presents donated by staff from Canberra Metro and Transport Canberra and City Services, arriving in downtown Gungahlin in style.
"The ride was smooth and very enjoyable and comfortable,'' Santa told a media throng, after alighting from the tram.
"All I'd like to say to everyone this morning is have a very, very merry Christmas and be kind to each other.''
St Vincent De Paul Society ACT president Warwick Fulton said the presents had come at a good time, with the society holding a Christmas party for children in need this weekend.
"For a lot of them, this will probably be the only new gift they get this Christmas,'' he said.
"So many families are struggling just to pay their rent and their utilities. Food is very difficult, to actually find food to put on the table.
"So putting presents out for their children is a really difficult thing for them at Christmas time. So many of these people, without your help, would not be having joy and celebration this Christmas.
"The Canberra community is incredibly generous.''
St Vincent's would also be distributing 3000 hampers full of donated festive food to people in Canberra next week.
Mr Fulton said the need at Christmas was created, he believed by the twin problems of expensive housing and often inadequate welfare payments. There were 1600 homeless people in Canberra, some sleeping in the open or in cars, and their need was heightened at Christmas.
"There's just not enough affordable housing in Canberra or in Australia,'' he said.
"When you look Australia-wide, there's a shortage of affordable housing of over 400,000 houses.
"The other issue is, people on Centrelink payments are struggling just to pay rent, so there's no money for food, little money for utilities. Through no fault of their own, they're just struggling through day after day, until we fix those two problems.
"We need to fix Centrelink payments, get them up to a reasonable amount, particularly Newstart. In Canberra, you've got people asked to live off $272 a week and the median rent is $540. It's easy maths, people just can't do it.
"If it wasn't for all the charities around Canberra who support these people, they'd be in really dire straits.''
"We would ask governments to put housing first. We believe housing is the first step to people getting back on their feet.''
Capital Metro CEO Glenn Stockton said the Christmas presents from staff to the needy was a chance for the organisation to "give back to the community''.
"It's a great honour to be associated with an organisation that gives and supports others,'' he said, of St Vincent's.
"As Capital Metro, we've been in the Canberra community for some time now, delivering your light rail, working hard to do so, and importantly, working hard to be members of your community.''
Chief Minister Andrew Barr also thanked the staff for making the donations.
"It's another very practical and tangible example of the Canberra community pulling together at this time of year,'' he said.
"And to welcome Santa to Gungahlin on a light rail vehicle is a great Christmas present in itself and we can look forward to one of the great Christmas gifts for our city in 2019, being light rail.''
