BeyondHousing chief executive Celia Adams said the COVID-19 pandemic showed homelessness could affect "anyone, at any time".
“The line between having a home and not can change quickly, and the paths in and out of homelessness are also not straightforward,” she said.
“So too is the challenge of helping people find a long-term home.”
Over the past year, BeyondHousing saw a 128 per cent increase in services, supporting 3773 people and families experiencing or at risk of homelessness amid statewide lockdowns and surging COVID-19 cases.
“Amidst the ongoing pandemic . . . we often heard the message ‘stay home, stay safe’ but that's impossible when someone is homeless,” Ms Adams said.
“Our region has a lack of crisis options, we are limited to a small number of caravan parks and motels, and the options available are expensive.
“This can mean less crisis nights provided for each person we support, and this isn't a choice we want to make.”
Ms Adams said the not-for-profit organisation had been challenged to keep people in crisis accommodation for extended periods, with the ongoing pandemic a "key factor" in the increasing cost and demand.
The first experience of homelessness is often crisis accommodation, which can be unaffordable for many.
“During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic period, specialist homelessness services like ours received a boost to funding from the Victorian Government that assisted us to extend stays in emergency accommodation,” she said.
“But, as we all know, the pandemic and lockdowns didn’t end in September, nor did the need to protect the health and welfare of people experiencing homelessness and that of the community.”
The additional funding allowed BeyondHousing to provide a 34 per cent increase in its crisis accommodation spending.
But despite facing similar circumstances to those experienced last year, the same resources are no longer available.
Shepparton man Bill might not have secured long-term housing if he had found himself in the same situation this year.
After his daughter moved to Queensland during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, Bill was living in his car until BeyondHousing provided him with a few weeks in crisis accommodation.
“I’d been on the waiting list for housing for over six years,” he said.
“I had owned my own home, then lived with my elderly mother before she passed away, so I’ve got no rental history. I have no family around here to stay with again. I didn’t have a place to go.”
Bill said the stress of living in his car made his diabetes "shoot through the roof".
“When (BeyondHousing) came to me and said they had somewhere I could rent I was so relieved, I didn’t want to end up with nowhere again,” he said.
“I’m 65 and already had two heart attacks. I don’t have the strength to keep fighting like I did when I was 25 and had money in my wallet every week and no worries in my head.”
Bill now has an ongoing private rental through the Homelessness to Home program.
“I came into BeyondHousing and all I had was a pillow, a doona and my clothes, now I have a home . . . it’s unbelievable,” he said.
But Ms Adams said a current shortage of rental housing across regional Victoria was severely impacting availability.
“Because of the current rental crisis in regional Victoria, we know many people that have never faced being without a home before are left with nowhere to go at the end of their tenancy,” she said.
“These are working families, people who have always had the means to support themselves. Because there are hardly any properties available, they are left with little choice.
“They are turning to motels and caravan parks whilst searching for a rental property in a market with critically low vacancy rates.”
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