Frontline social services are buckling under demand as a growing number of Australians seek help during a worsening housing crisis.
Almost nine in 10 organisations across housing, homelessness, domestic violence and other community services reported a major increase in workload during December and January compared to previous years, an Everybody's Home survey has found.
Soaring rents, growing mortgage payments and the high cost of living have made it hard for organisations to keep up as more Australians face housing stress and homelessness, Everybody's Home spokeswoman Maiy Azize said.
"The services at the coalface of Australia’s housing crisis are at breaking point," she said.
An indexed rise in funding was still not enough for the Salvation Army to meet growing demand for its services, Policy and Advocacy General Manager Jennifer Kirkaldy said.
"We are seeing an increase in demand essentially across all our services," she told AAP.
As well as homelessness services, Salvos provides social housing, family and domestic violence services and emergency relief services such as food vouchers, where volunteers were noticing the most immediate increase in people seeking assistance.
"So I'm in Canberra, in Tuggeranong. When we opened our Christmas relief drive ... that was fully subscribed within 24 hours," Ms Kirkaldy said.
"We had so many people show up when we opened our doors, we actually needed to do a WHS assessment to make sure that no one was trampled.
"Anecdotally, we are seeing this huge uptick, not just in demand, but we're seeing an uptick in desperation."
The survey showed about three in four organisations reported caseloads had become more complex and a similar proportion found waitlists and waiting times had increased.
Half of the organisations had fewer resources for each client and two in three were unable to provide long-term housing for clients.
As a result, one in four services reported the people they helped were forced to remain in unsafe home environments.
The compounding economic issues have also impacted frontline staff and volunteers, fuelling burnout and attrition at almost two-thirds of surveyed organisations as many struggled to afford housing themselves.
The toll of being unable to help people who are coming to you in their time of desperation can't be understated, Ms Kirkaldy said.
"These are people who are giving up their free time choosing to do this because they love people, they love their community, and they really want to help," she said.
"And then to be always in that situation where you're never doing enough - it's almost impossible not to internalise that."
Everybody's Home has called on the federal government to raise income support payments, introduce new renter protections and increase the construction of social housing.
“This is a national emergency and it requires a national response," Ms Azize said.
