Chief Minister Andrew Barr on Friday confirmed Housing ACT was reviewing the future of the complex and the land it was on, but said no decisions had yet been made.

Mr Barr suggested the current model, under which Ainslie Village has operated since the early 1980s, might no longer be working.

He said he was not ruling anything in or out, but selling the land - at the base of Mount Ainslie next to Campbell High - was an option.

"The issue will be whether, in fact, we will need to expand service provision, where we might do that, what's the best model for that sort of provision and where it might best be located to," Mr Barr told ABC Radio Canberra.

"I suspect it could be multiple sites in the future, particularly as the city grows."

Mr Barr made an argument for the option of smaller housing  in a "number of different locations".

"One of the issues that is pretty clear, from experience in Canberra and around the country and internationally, is that if you have significant concentration of social disadvantage, of mental health issues, all in one spot, that can be very difficult to get the best outcomes for people and ... is a challenge for surrounding communities."

Robin Bartrum and Carolyn Traill, who have lived at Ainslie Village since 1986, said generalisations were being made about people who lived there. There was an incorrect belief, they said, that all residents had “drug and alcohol, mental health and other complex problems”.

"We feel a lot statements being made are wrong and are intended to demonise and dismiss a community of people that has been here for almost 40 years providing a home in times of need for many, many Canberrans and others," Ms Bartrum said.

Ainslie Village has been operating in Quick Street, Campbell since the early 1980s.

It has 172 rooms, arranged in four-, eight- and 12-room residential houses. Two houses are reserved for women, and the balance for men.

Housing ACT director Louise Gilding in mid-2017 said the government had an agreement in place with Argyle Housing until June this year to manage Ainslie Village, with an option to extend that agreement for another two years. A question has been put to Housing ACT about whether the agreement will be extended or not and for how long.

Ms Bartrum said it was ironic that Ainslie Village was being painted as dysfunctional when society's most vulnerable had been "dumped there" for almost 40 years with little or no support.

She said there was a need to better maintain the existing buildings and create a "better balance" between people who were on low incomes and others with mental health issues or drug dependencies.

"The truth is that much of the care and support provided to those in need at Ainslie Village is provided voluntarily by fellow residents in the community and within households, both ‘able’ and disabled," Ms Bartrum said.

"To say that this model is outdated shows a considerable amount of ignorance about how the village works and what its objectives are."

Ms Bartrum, who believes the current review is just a land grab, said she and Ms Traill had been through tough times, particularly when other residents were on the drug ice, but they believed the Ainslie Village model of communal, inclusive living was working.

"Although the village is far from perfect with houses having been neglected and overcrowded for so long, it has, nevertheless, been a home and a haven for many Canberrans and others when times were tough  - a place to heal and be healed," she said.

"A door to close, a room of one’s own surrounded by friends, can mean a lot for the formerly homeless.

"We think it's worth fighting for."

Ms Bartrum said it was also wrong to say Ainslie Village provided cheap housing when a room in an eight-bedroom sharehouse there cost $150 a week.

"Those of us on aged and disability pensions have been paying ‘market rent’ for years," she said.