Adelaide’s homelessness and crisis accommodation chiefs are struggling to help rising numbers of South Australians ahead of winter as ongoing cost-of-living and fuel crises rage on and some already operating at capacity.

Catherine House manager Jaylee Cooper said the crisis accommodation centre already sees an uptick in women seeking access to its services in winter but its services were “already full” with an increase in those looking for support rising by 81 per cent in the past year alone.

“When weather gets a little bit colder it can really be the last straw for people, particularly for women. A lot of women are sleeping in cars and it’s obviously really cold to do that,” Cooper said.

“A lot of women in the winter times would need to pay for fuel to be able to heat their cars, and with the current fuel crisis as well, that’s certainly going to be really challenging.

“What we do see over the cooler months is more people reaching out, because they just get to the point of, I just can’t do this anymore.”

Cooper said Catherine House had seen an increase of 81 per cent in women seeking support over the past 12 months, with the number expected to increase over the next few months.

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Construction is currently underway on a new $32.6 million Catherine House in the Adelaide CBD that would allow the service to support 76 women per night as opposed to 60 at the current facility. Construction is slated for a 2027 completion.

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“We are always looking for ways that we can further support women,” Cooper said.

“One of the problems that we have is when women stay with us, they would often stay with us for three to five months.

“But women are tending to stay with us now between five to seven months because there’s a lack of affordable and available housing for them to go to. I think more broadly, we are always looking for more options for housing.”

Hutt St Centre CEO Chris Burns said the centre was already “stockpiling” to support people ahead of winter.

“It’s not about hats and sunscreen and water. Now it’s about how do we get sleeping bags, beanies, warm clothes, and try and get food in to get frozen so that we can get through the winter months ahead,” Burns said.

“Everyone is starting to feel the cold now, and the recent rains over the last couple of weekends really exposed that.”

Burns said Hutt St Centre sees a peak in people accessing services as the weather gets colder during April, May and June before stabilising in July.

“As winter comes on, people’s health will also decline,” Burns said.

“We’re actually now building up our allied health team to be in position to address growth in health services.

“Fortunately, we were able to go to the federal government and seek additional funding for our health services.”

Burns said the cost-of-living crisis and lack of emergency accommodation was still “stretching the capacity” of the centre.

“More clients are trying to access our services, but the cost of delivering those services increases because we have to purchase items like groceries and fuel,” he said.

“Because of the cost-of-living crisis and our high reliance on donations, people are less able to donate to support us.”

Adelaide City Council has also proposed plans to support rough sleepers in the CBD.

Councillor Phillip Martin raised a motion at a March meeting, telling council that an estimated “250 people” were sleeping rough in the CBD each night.

Councillors unanimously backed the motion that would see council properties open their doors for temporary emergency accommodation, with the State Library and City Hall among the proposed emergency accommodation locations. Emergency accommodation locations are yet to be confirmed.