Home in Place is urging people to sign a petition calling for MPs to tackle the current housing crisis

The petition is part of the Confront the Crisis campaign organised by the Community Housing Industry Association NSW ahead of the upcoming state election.

Home in Place manager of business and public affairs Martin Kennedy said the housing crisis was affecting those in NSW.

Mr Kennedy said with rent continuing to rise, more people than ever are struggling to keep a roof over their heads.

He said those most affected by the crisis include pensioners, young people, people with a disability, women and children escaping domestic violence but also workers that keep our communities running such as teachers, nurses, aged care workers and cleaners.

"The rental market is broken, with supply falling well short of housing demand," Mr Kennedy said.

"Vacancy rates have plummeted across the state in many areas, rental housing isn't just unaffordable, it's unavailable."

According to Mr Kennedy 50,000 families and individuals are on the NSW social housing waitlist with waiting times as high as 10 years in some areas.

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"Whoever governs NSW after March must have a plan to confront this crisis or more people will be forced to join the list and either live with family, friends, couch surf, or worse, live in tents or their cars," he said.

Inflation figures released by the Australia Bureau of Statistics (ABS) have confirmed rising cost pressures in housing with urgent policy action needed says Master Builders Australia CEO Denita Wawn.

Inflation accelerated to 7.3 per cent during November, with prices now rising at their fastest pace since 1990.

"We acknowledge that the Reserve Bank of Australia has a difficult balancing approach to take in curbing inflation but at the same time not getting too ahead of the realised impact of their decisions," Ms Wawn said.

"However, the most sustainable solution to the inflationary problem lies on the supply side, through bringing down the cost of doing business. The requires issues like labour shortages, materials costs and the regulatory burden to be dealt with in a focused and urgent manner."

Over the year to November, the cost of buying a newly-built home rose by 17.9 per cent according to ABS.

"Housing continues to be the inflationary canary in the coal mine with figures reflecting huge increases in the cost of building materials, as well as continued shortages of key construction trade workers," Ms Wawn said.

Rent prices are also accelerating and are up 3.6 per cent over the past year.

"Growing pressures in the rental market are being exacerbated by persistently low building volumes in the higher density part of the housing market," Ms Wawn said.

"Labour shortages can best be addressed over the short and medium term by making it easier for migrants to work in Australia. The bottlenecks in our migration system need to be addressed as a matter of priority.

"The continued ramping up of the regulatory burden on our industry is making it much more costly for building businesses to do their work, contributing to housing inflation."

People can find out more about the crisis and the campaign, and sign the petition, at www.confrontthecrisis.com.

Home in Place is a NSW based not for profit community housing provider and a member of CHIA NSW. It manages more than 6,600 social, affordable and disability housing properties in NSW including Dubbo.

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