But it's not just the food and warmth they come for, the shelter provides guests with companionship, a non-judgmental listening ear and a place to reignite a sense of belonging, says shelter volunteer James London.

"It seems as if folks are just looking for someone or some place to be safe, where they can start to re-engage with community and just stop," he said.

"We've been on that roller coaster ride for the last few years and to be able to stop and land and pause for a minute before they figure out where they can go, that's what the shelter provides."

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This is Mr London's second winter volunteering at the shelter and he said it's busier than last year.

"Over the last 12 months there's been an increase in people," he said.

"I've had phone calls from folks personally who have contacted me and they've found themselves in this position, there's folks who've moved out of the city to a rural area and thinking 'I'm going to start a life there, out of the urban rat race' and found that there is no house there."

Another shelter volunteer Di Duursma agreed, but said it was hard to quantify the number of people sleeping rough around the district.

"A lot of people have struggled to find housing after the pandemic, rentals are really hard to come by, people's circumstances have gotten worse," she said.

"There are lots of people that are sleep rough in tents or cars and are unable to get housing despite the best efforts of many community and government funded agencies in the area.

"We're seeing more people experience homelessness and it's much more visible in our community."

Ms Duursma said a culmination of factors, including the shortage of housing stock, increased population as more people moved into the region, the subsequent increasing house and rental prices, increased costs of living, the end of government COVID-19 support payments and increased family violence during the pandemic, had all contributed to the homelessness crisis.

Ms Duursma said there was a sense of hopelessness.

"We're seeing people in various camping spots that are homeless that are thinking there's no foreseeable change for their circumstances, almost like there's nothing on the horizon for them," she said.

"There's a lot of people who never thought they'd be homeless, who are working."

Ms Durrsma said groups of people had taken to sleeping in along the river, but it was no substitute for the community the Shelter could provide.

"It's very difficult, as the water starts to come up and we have an increased risk of flooding, what's going to happen to those people?" she said.

Ms Duursma welcomed potential guests and volunteers to contact the Shelter.

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