A 55-year-old man who had been sleeping rough was "stone dead" for more than an hour in a western Sydney city precinct before anybody noticed.
A social worker has told a NSW parliamentary inquiry there was a percentage of people sleeping rough who didn't want to be found.
"The hiddens are very hard to evaluate, unfortunately," Parramatta Mission's Meals Plus Manager Paul Moussa said on Tuesday.
"We had one 55-year-old who was lying in the centre of Parramatta for an hour and a half, stone dead, before anyone picked him up.
"The risk of homelessness is becoming more prevalent now as well, so those numbers are going to increase."
Mr Moussa was giving evidence at the upper house inquiry into homelessness amongst older people aged over 55 in NSW, with the second day of hearings held in Parramatta.
Head of Community Housing Operations at the Women's Housing Company Christina Hough, told the inquiry there were many hurdles faced by older people trying to secure social housing,
Most people understood the need for providing identification, but older people were also required to create new documents including 'home seeker diaries'.
"It's the onerous process where you have to jump through hoops," she said.
Many found housing applications overwhelming.
"It's just the unbelievable amount of steps and the evidence when it's very clear that someone isn't going to be able to resolve their own housing need."
The most recently-available Census data shows there are some 37,000 homeless people in NSW and more than 100,000 in Australia.
Caitlin McDowell from the Community Housing Industry Association's said on Monday research showed NSW needed 317,600 new properties to meet demand to 2036 for social and affordable homes.
