There's no shortage of phrases for it - just a shortage of beds.

But it came as a shock to me last week when The Mercury's Donna Sharpe reported that homelessness in Maitland is on the rise.

That's partly because we're largely shielded from it. Go to one of the big cities and homelessness is there in front of your eyes. People sleeping on cardboard on the streets, or begging for a handout.

But we don't see it in Maitland ... not in front of your eyes like that.

But Member for Maitland Jenny Aitchison says it's very real and puts the problem down to a shortage of available rental properties and affordable housing.

Sarah Adams, manager of Maitland Neighbourhood Centre, deals with it every day and agrees, saying it is most certainly on the rise.

She estimates the demand for MNC services has increased about 30 per cent.

With JobKeeper payments ended, and with large numbers of people leaving the big cities for a more relaxed lifestyle in the regions, you'd have to think it can only exacerbate the problem.

Certainly it has fuelled a spike in the property market, pushing the cost of a home even further out of reach for many.

This may just be the greatest challenge Maitland faces in the short term.

Coming up with a workable solution is urgent. But it is a dilemma many cities around the world have failed to solve. And sadly, the longer it takes, the harder it becomes to fix.

Rick Allen, Editor