It takes the Ministry of Social Development an average of seven months to find suitable housing for families living in cars, according to figures released by the Labour Party.

The statistics, from MSD, show families in cars looking for homes in the three months to June waited an average of 217 days to be be put into social housing.

That's compared to 129 days in the March quarter, and 108 in the three months to December.

The statistics also showed the number of people registered as living in public places and tents looking for social homes had risen from 31 in September 2015 to 75 by June this year.

Those people were in June waiting on average 157 days for a home, compared to 99 in the December quarter.

Labour Party leader Andrew Little believes the figures are disturbing, disgraceful, and shows a fundamental lack of care on the part of the government.

Earlier this weekend, United Future leader Peter Dunne called for a summit to address the housing crisis, saying that all the major players need to get around the same table and come up with a strategy for tackling the problem.

"We want to see a summit where all of the players - central government local government, the building industry, social housing providers, banks, The Reserve Bank - are bought together around the same table to nut out a comprehensive strategy to deal with all aspects of the housing problem," he said.

Dunne's call, at his party's annual general meeting, follows the announcement of the government's intention to offer a 30 percent subsidy for community housing providers building new homes, at a cost of $24 million.

However, Marama Davidson, the Green Party's social housing spokesperson says unfortunately, many providers such as the Salvation Army aren't in a position to come up with that kind of money.

"I would've been happier with seventy-five percent of funding, as the organisations have been asking for," she said.

"I'm very concerned."

The opposition has also been holding public, nationwide hearings on the issue of homelessness.