Efforts from government to house people who had been homelessess before the coronavirus pandemic has showed it could be done all along, according to UNSW's Centre for Social Impact.
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They will be pushing for welfare measures to continue long after the pandemic ends.
The centre has been hosting a series of webinars as part of its impact2020 summit, including Wednesday's event titled "Homelessness was always solvable - With crisis comes opportunity".
Centre of Social Impact research fellow Chris Hartley said Australia could not go back to the measures in place before the virus.
"It's been a remarkable thing to actually see that once the will is there, that people can be housed. It's important to remember that the housing crisis existed well beyond COVID and will exist in an exacerbated form once COVID ends," he said.
"There's been constant talk that we couldn't house homeless people, that we couldn't increase Newstart, there were a whole range of measures that couldn't happen.
"We can see that when will is there, it can actually occur. COVID-19 has really exposed and brought another layer of vulnerability to groups such as those experiencing homelessness, but homelessness without COVID-19 is still a crisis situation."
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UNSW Professor Paul Flatau said homeless people were at higher risk if they contracted coronavirus because there was a link between homelessness and long-term health conditions.
He praised the government for providing homeless people with accommodation in motels during the pandemic.
"That's in my view, the largest movement from the streets to accommodation that we've ever seen. The process hasn't always been smooth ... but in general terms it's been a pretty amazing outcome," he said.
"What we're seeing is an incredible response around rough sleeping, which we want to build on in that platform of ending homelessness in Australia."
Evictions haven't stopped at all, there's been a significant increase.
- Chris Hartley
He said the country needed to be careful about a "new wave of homelessness" being caused by the pandemic, with instances of domestic violence expected to rise and people losing their jobs.
Mr Hartley said the Centre for Social Impact supported a moratorium on evictions, but the rules imposed by states only banned evictions on the basis of tenants being in financial arrears.
They have reportedly been using other means.
"Evictions haven't stopped at all, there's been a significant increase," Mr Hartley said.
"Landlords are getting around the financial arrears moratorium or the requirement to enter into good faith negotiations with rental decreases."
