The decline in social housing in Canberra is one of the "greatest policy failures in our community's history", community groups have said as they demand change ahead of the territory election.
The ACT Council of Social Service and ACT Shelter is calling on the next government to commit to increasing the proportion of social housing stock after a "decades-long" decline.
The groups want a commitment for social housing to be at least 10 per cent of all housing stock by 2036.
A report from the groups said when self-government began in 1989 social housing made up 12.2 per cent of all households but it is now only 5.7 per cent.
ACT Shelter chief executive Travis Gilbert said based on current housing numbers the total number of social housing properties would need to increase by more than 8000 to reach 19,500.
"This election is an opportunity for the next government to set the ACT on a different pathway," Mr Gilbert said.
"This means committing to a plan for housing that is based on strategic, long-term thinking, with an infrastructure investment approach underpinning it."
The report said the government's current policy settings resulted in the decline, pointing to the troubled growth and renewal program. The eight-year program, which has been extended multiple times, is expected to increase the total number of public housing properties by 400.
But this will not be enough to increase the number of homes relative to the territory's growing population.
It will decrease from 28 public housing properties for every 1000 residents in 2018 to 24 public housing properties for every 1000 people in 2027.
There are 3152 on the ACT government's public housing waiting list.
ACTCOSS chief executive Devin Bowles said the housing crisis was the biggest policy challenge facing an incoming government.
"It's no surprise that wait lists for public housing have ballooned in recent years to more than 3000. It's no surprise that those waiting for public housing that's standard are waiting more than five years," he said.
"These aren't surprises but they are individual tragedies for every person and family that has to ensure homelessness in one of the wealthiest communities in the world."
"These aren't surprises but they are one of the greatest policy failures in our community's history."
The Greens' are the only one of the major parties to release their policy on public and social housing. They have pledged to spend $5.9 billion over the next decade to build and buy 10,000 new public housing properties. This would include a government-owned housing developer.
Labor has set an overall target for 30,000 more homes in Canberra by 2030 but has not explicitly set out a target for public housing properties.
Independents for Canberra have said if they hold the balance of power at the election they will use this to guarantee Housing ACT receives enough funding to reduce the priority housing waiting time to a maximum 30 days and the high needs housing with to a maximum of 90 days. Strong Independents want to double social housing.
