Ms Phillips spoke at Southern Cross Housing, Nowra, on Tuesday, February 9 about the lack of housing in the region.

"We know the lack of social and affordable housing is a huge issue along the coast," she said.

"We have the lowest rental availability in NSW. People come to my office in really dire circumstances, it's a huge issue.

"We're seeing more elderly people and families needing housing. It's getting worse and worse."

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Ms Phillips said COVID-19 sea-changers and the bushfire emergency had both put pressure on the housing market, and this pressure would only be increased by the sale of the Gateway Caravan Park.

She called on all levels of government to collaborate and "kick-start" affordable and social housing developments.

"It's everyone's responsibility," she said.

"We have a dire need and it will take strong policy from all levels of government to address it."

"The federal government has been buck-passing - it's imperative they invest in building more affordable and social housing."

Shadow Minister Housing for Jason Clare said one quick fix would be for the government to invest in repairing social housing stock.

"The South Coast has been smashed in past months," he said.

"The vacancy rate is at 0.3 per cent and it's terribly hard to get public housing or crisis accomodation.

"The most immediate thing the government could do is repair existing social housing. Some places are so bad that people can't live in them - you fix them and they can.

"There's no silver bullet, but it would create work for locals and give some people a place to live."

Adriana Burns-Nguyen of Southern Cross Housing said many people who have secure housing were unaware of the change in the market, and would be shocked by how difficult it can be to find a home in the region.

"We need to see collaboration at all levels of government," she said.

"There are a number of projects in the pipeline that we would love to get off the ground now.

"If we don't do something about it I don't even want to think about the state of our commuity in ten years time."