THE Mallee Accommodation Support Program is organising a food can drive on Friday as part of Homelessness Week, which runs from August 1-8.

The event will be held at the Centro Carpark (outside Adairs) from 9am-5pm.

MASP chief executive Vincent Wilson said Census data showed there had been a huge increase in people suffering from rent stress in recent years.

"Household stress is a very clear measure of what is going on in our families and communities," he said.

"Paying 30 percent of your household income as rent or mortgage payments is statistically considered the tipping point for housing stress, and between the 2016 census and 2021 census there was a really worrying growth in the number of households in that group.

"For example, the census data shows in Mildura in 2016, just 4.87 percent of households were paying more than 30 percent of their income to mortgage repayments, and that figure has nearly doubled to 9.2 percent. For rentals, the rise is even sharper, from 10.6 percent in 2016, to 30.1 percent in 2021."

Mr Wilson said housing shortages were affecting Mallee people just as they were other around the state.

"As a result, many of the most vulnerable members of our community are at increased risk because insecure housing impacts on so many other measures of wellbeing," he said.

Mr Wilson said MASP was working towards important infrastructure and building projects to find local homelessness solutions.