The ACT Greens have voiced concerns people are missing out on public housing due to a lack of availability, while others with complex needs have nowhere to turn for mental health and family violence problems.
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Greens MLA Caroline Le Couteur on Tuesday said Labor's minority partner in government would be pushing hard this year for the new housing strategy to be fully implemented, including acting to address homelessness.
Ms Le Couteur said the Productivity Commission's report on government services had confirmed Canberra continued to face a housing affordability crisis.
The report showed no-one on the public housing waiting list in Canberra was able to access a dwelling within two years of their application in 2017-18, with almost 100 per cent of available dwellings going to only those facing the toughest circumstances.
She said low-income residents were still being forced into unaffordable private rental homes due to a lack of public and community housing, an issue she believed would only be addressed by urgently providing more affordable renting options.
Ms Le Couteur said the government's new housing strategy, released after two years of consultation late last year, was a step in the right direction, but the needed to move from the broad principles it outlined to concerted action.
While she said the Greens would not be threatening supply or supporting other government legislation in return for stronger action on housing, Ms Le Couteur said housing affordability was one of the most important issues facing the city and she expected the government to act.
She also cited figures in the commission's report showing hundreds of people facing potential homelessness were unable to access other services, such as support for domestic violence, mental health or drug and alcohol problems.
The report showed of the 130 clients at risk of homelessness who also sought help for a drug and alcohol problem in 2017-18, 63.1 per cent of whom were not referred to, or provided, a service; and of the 424 clients facing domestic violence in the territory, 21.9 were also not referred or provided a service.
But Ms Le Couteur said it was not a failing of the government's central portal, OneLink, which manages referrals; rather it was simply that those taking such calls had nowhere to refer people to to access such services.
She said there were simply not enough available beds in the mental health, drug and alcohol and family violence sectors, to deal with demand, and more needed to be done to increase the places available for all people needing treatment.
"We do know that OneLink is basically saying to people if you're living in a car you're a step above someone not living in a car and we can't help you; we can maybe suggest somewhere that's better or worse to park your car," she said.
"We can tell you about the early morning centre and things like that, but if you're living in a car, OneLink is having to say to people: 'you're not our highest need client unfortunately'.
"That is really wrong and sad in a national community like Canberra, we should be able to do better."
Housing Minister Yvette Berry said on Monday the ACT had the strongest result nationally in providing housing for those who needed it most, and the latest national public housing tenant survey had shown Canberra tenants had high satisfaction rates.
