Families comprise an increasing proportion of the nation's homeless but there is a dire shortage of suitable accommodation for them, says a new report.
The Wesley Mission's research found that families make up one-third of those seeking help for homelessness.
While the report acknowledged the federal government's commitment to build 20,000 social housing units, it questioned whether they would be suitable for families.
In NSW, almost 97 per cent of new dwellings that were earmarked for construction were one- and two-bedroom, while only 3 per cent were either three- or four-edroom.
Wesley Mission chief executive Reverend Keith Garner said families were increasingly being put up in hotels and motels as there was not enough accommodation for them.
"There have been great strides at both federal and state level to try to improve the situation but, as far as families are concerned, there still is a huge gap in providing the kind of accommodation that best suits them," Dr Garner said.
"The last thing we want to do is break families up. We need accommodation that suits them. Families need not just one and two bedroom units; they need three and four bedroom accommodation. There needs to be a growth in the type of accommodation which suits families."
The Wesley Report, Homelessness and the next generation, released on Tuesday, found there had been a seismic shift in the face of homelessness over the past two decades.
"The traditional picture of a homeless person was an older man, but the reality is now it's more likely to be a younger woman than an older man," Dr Garner said. "Many, many children are deeply affected by homelessness and that's been our concern with this report."
More than a quarter of Australia's homeless are under 18 and almost two-thirds of those who seek help are women.
The report found that one in five people seeking help cited domestic violence as the main cause of their homelessness.
The report recommends that homeless services tailor help to suit different needs and that homeless families should have access to suitable social housing.
"There needs to be a combined effort between government and non-government sectors to be able to solve this problem," Dr Garner said.
