The harrowing extent of Ballarat's housing crisis was laid bare in a recent report which found more than half the region's renters and mortgagees were experiencing housing stress.

Adam Liversage, Uniting Vic.Tas senior manager homelessness, said the unprecedented daily assault of cost-of-living pressures within the community - fuelled by soaring petrol prices and inflation, close to non-existent wage growth and surging rent - had created a staggering demand for assistance.

"People are having to make impossible choices everyday between putting food on the table, paying for medicine or petrol for their cars and being unable to afford their rent," he said.

"On any given night, there are hundreds of people across Ballarat who are experiencing homelessness; our emergency relief and community meals programs are under strain - many [families] are one pay cheque away from homelessness."

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Motorists only stand to save between $9 and $12 when they fill up the tank, assuming the 44 cents per litre fuel excise is slashed by the expected 20 cents.

Mr Liversage said the measure would yield little in the way of return for people experiencing financial stress.

Naomi Stephenson, emergency relief coordinator at Anglicare Victoria in Ballarat, shared this sentiment, observing the cut to the fuel excise would make little difference to people "really doing it tough", given all had already exhausted every means of reducing their already modest expenses to stabilise their finances.

"It's not going to make any difference when all the food people normally get has also gone up - it's a token gesture, it really is," Ms Stephenson said, adding that she knew of several families in Ballarat who'd recently taken to living in their cars to get by while many others could no longer afford the school-run.

"We're getting so many specific requests for food that don't require heating facilities - that can be easily eaten in the car or at the park."

Like Uniting, Ms Stephenson said Anglicare Ballarat was also experiencing a crippling demand for services, with the cascading cost of living pressures drawing new faces daily.

"We normally encourage our clients to come in just once a month, but within weeks now they're back and they're desperate," she said.

"Everybody's talking about petrol; everybody wants petrol vouchers - it's really awful and very distressing for people. We're even hearing just the hardest stories from people who are not renters, who are trying to pay off their homes - it's hard for everyone."

"The [federal] government is out of touch with the reality of the situation."

Neither Mr Liversage nor Ms Stephenson were of the view the fuel excise cut would help households absent a wholesale reform of housing affordability, social housing, homelessness and/or increases to the social welfare net.

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