Without these programs, the critically-high public housing waiting list could double.

But waiting until the 11th hour to announce funding is not good enough.

To make the community sector wait until 20 days before funding ran out is not a good start for the Cabinet Secretary, Ms O'Connor, in building better relations with the community sector.

Ms O'Connor heard from the community sector during the election that they needed more certainty in funding in order to retain staff, therefore the unnecessary stress caused in this instance could have been avoided.

The DHHS Progress Report shows the declining number of public housing applicants being housed, increasing waiting lists and 3049 households being assisted through the Private Rental Support Scheme in the nine months ending March. Similarly, the Private Rental Tenancy Support Service has helped 4500 households in the past five years.

The Liberals introduced a motion in Parliament on Tuesday calling for the private rental support programs to be retained.