A walk down Summer Street at the right time of morning and night will show you just how much of a problem it’s become.

The Central Western Daily has had several reports of people sleeping rough in the doorways of vacant shopfronts, in cars or inside the now dilapidated Orange Base Hospital.

More recently we’ve heard of people sleeping in industrial garbage bins and drains.

Not only are these people now increasingly visible we know from several other sources that demand for crisis accommodation is growing.

Orange has a dedicated crisis accommodation centre in March Street and it’s frequently full.

Housing Plus is in the final stages of securing funding for its domestic violence shelter, while the good people at Pay It Forward have already opened their doors.

In the lead up to next month’s election candidates have identified a range of hot topics.

We already know the poor condition of our roads is on the agenda of several candidates but it was surprising to see the Greens ticket put the spotlight on homelessness.

Of course the local candidates were following the party line but obviously feel they’ve found a solution to what’s fast becoming a very big problem.

According to the Greens, landlords of about 1700 unoccupied houses in Orange should be forced to pay a levy to fund housing projects for homeless people.

Greens’ candidates for Orange Janelle Baylis and Stephen Nugent outlined a plan where the next council would help reduce homelessness by collecting the levy.

Ms Baylis said the Greens’ Empty Homes Levy would enable council to use the levy to invest in local housing projects.

Council would invest either directly, or in partnership with community housing providers.

While it’s good to see the Greens tackle homelessness it remains to be seen whether this ambitious initiative is something any council would be equipped to oversee.

At a time when there’s debate about council’s involvement in developing the old hospital site it might be difficult to convince voters it should widen its brief even further to include such welfare initiatives.