Protesters push to make paper homes bricks and mortar

Calls to fix the housing crisis are intensifying as Australians battle soaring rents and a severe shortage of available properties.

Thousands of origami homes covered part of the steps of Victoria's parliament on Wednesday in a bid to demonstrate the scale of the state's housing and homelessness crisis.

The 6000 paper homes represented the number of houses the state needed to build each year to stymie the crisis, Council to Homeless Persons chief executive Deborah Di Natale said.

More than 100,000 Victorians sought help from homelessness services in 2022, while 30,000 people in the state are homeless on any given night.

"We can put an end to this," Ms Di Natale said.

"We need a long-term commitment to build 6000 community and public homes for Victorians, and we need that commitment now."

Housing Minister Colin Brooks was among the MPs who joined advocates at the demonstration.

He said the government hadn't forgotten about homelessness amid the wider housing crisis, adding it was the most extreme form of disadvantage.

"It flows out of the whole housing continuum and so rental stress is just as big a player in that," he told reporters.

The most important measure to address homelessness was to build more homes, Mr Brooks said.

The Victorian government in 2020 committed to building 12,000 social and affordable houses, and it was among the states and territories to receive cash as part of the federal government's $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator fund.

Merri Outreach Support Service chief executive Mark Goodie said the state's Big Build was yet to deliver on its promises.

"A lot of politicians are seeing and hearing what we're saying ... but I'm also hoping that both sides of government hear this and it's bipartisan," he told AAP.

Earlier on Wednesday, federal Housing Minister Julie Collins reintroduced legislation to set up the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund after the first try at passing the bill was held up in the Senate.

The fund has been blocked by the coalition and Greens, with the minor party demanding an agreement from national cabinet for a rent freeze.

In Queensland, a draft plan for more than 800,000 new homes across the state's southeast was unveiled.

The South East Queensland Regional Plan includes a goal of 863,000 new homes for the fast-growing region, including about 210,00 for Brisbane and 158,000 for the Gold Coast as another 2.2 million people swell the area's population to six million.

In NSW, Urban Taskforce chief executive Tom Forrest seized on weak housing approvals to call for urgent plans to build more homes in the state.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show 52,000 approvals were issued in NSW during the 12 months to June 2023, the second-lowest total in a decade.

The state has committed to 314,000 new market dwellings to be completed over five years starting from July next year under the National Housing Accord.

"To reach those levels, you need approximately 25 per cent more approvals than the target for completions," Mr Forrest said.