The state government announced it would build 1000 new public housing properties to help get more Victorians off the streets and into a home of its own in the 2019/20 budget.

Under the $209 million budget commitment, new properties will be built in Geelong and Ballarat, as well as the Darebin, Maribyrnong, Stonnington and Whitehorse council areas in Melbourne.

Member for South West Coast Coast Roma Britnell said the fact Warrnambool had missed out was a glaring omission in the state budget.

"There is a glaring absence of funding to address the growing housing crisis in south-west Victoria," Ms Britnell said.

"There is a desperate shortage of housing - both private and public - in this region."

Ms Britnell said regional services were being inundated with requests for help and were scrambling to cope with a surge in homelessness and rough sleeping.

"I am in regular contact with people who are desperate to house themselves and their families and with service providers whose hands are tied," she said.

"There is simply nowhere for people to go and the waiting period for public housing is distressingly long."

Ms Britnell said the state government had failed to deliver for the south-west.

"If the Andrews government is serious about supporting vulnerable families and individuals - and empowering those who flee domestic violence - it will respond to our loud, desperate and repeated pleas for help," she said.

Former Warrnambool mayor Jack Daffy said the city was in desperate need of more public housing.

"There hasn't been any public housing built for years," Mr Daffy said.

He said there were employment opportunities in the city, but people moving to the region were finding it hard to find somewhere to live.

"Where are people on lower incomes who are looking to come down here supposed to go?"

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