Chief executive officer Jenny Smith said the issue was pushing more people into homelessness.

"The median rent rose $20 to $310 per week in the two years to December 2018 and went up by $50 to $350 per week over the same period in the wider Barwon South West area," Ms Smith said.

In addition to that, the number of rental properties people on Centrelink could afford fell from 143 in December 2017 to just 81 in December 2018. "The number of people coming to homelessness services increased by 13 per cent to 2782 in the three years to 2017/18."

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is responsible for about 2200 properties across the Wimmera South West, which includes Warrnambool and covers an area of 54,000 kilometres. "There are no vacant departmental properties in Warrnambool," a DHHS spokesman said.

"There are currently five properties in Warrnambool which have been offered to potential tenants and are waiting acceptance."

SalvoConnect western regional manager Lindsay Stow said one of the issues was there weren't enough properties to suit people living on their own or large families.

"I think the problem is there are more people looking for smaller units and larger properties," Mr Stow said.

"The social demographic has changed but the housing profile hasn't really changed quickly enough to keep up."

Mr Stow said it was taking longer than ever before to find people properties.

"We're still able to assist people to get public housing but not as quickly as we could previously," he said.

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