Assistant Housing Minister wants to put 'positive spin' on homelessness

The federal Assistant Housing Minister Luke Howarth has tried to downplay the extent of homelessness as lord mayors meet to discuss what they call a crisis.

Homeless man sleeping in the street Source: Press Association

Assistant Housing Minister Luke Howarth says he wants to put a "positive spin" on homelessness, downplaying the demands of lord mayors who have labelled the issue a crisis in capital cities.

The Queensland MP who was recently promoted to the role, said the more than 116,000 homeless people made up just 0.5 per cent of Australia's population.

"I want to put a positive spin on it as well and not just say Australia's in a housing crisis when it affects a very, very small percentage of the population," he told ABC Radio National on Tuesday.

National Shelter executive officer Adrian Pisarski rejected the assistant minister's assessment, saying he was relying on notoriously inaccurate counts of people sleeping rough. 

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