The Central West Fusion coordinator has never had the misfortune of being forced to sleep rough, but Friday night will mark her fifth year of taking part in Fusion's Sleep In Your Car event, which raises money to both fight and raise awareness of homelessness.

"It's bloody cold and uncomfortable," she said.

"You'll think you're right and then you get a cramp somewhere or you'll notice there's a gap at the back of the neck or your knee, and wriggle around, and then need to go to the toilet but you don't want to ... it's all very basic things."

However, she knows the four - soon to be five - nights are nothing compared to what many people are going through across Orange.

Fusion offers support to those who are homeless or at-risk of not having somewhere to live, holding two free dinners a month and offering support to the complex issue.

"Homelessness is not always visible ... a lot of homelessness is people without secure accommodation," Mrs Rankin said.

"It might be several young people living sharing a one-bedroom flat, couch surfing or in cars or in places not designed to cope with that many people."

However, she said a shift in the past few years had left more people without secure accommodation.

"I think the scary thing about homelessness now is it's increasing, and it's affecting people who are not just down on their luck or who have made poor life choices, there are people who through no fault of their own, lose their job or who can't afford to get back into the housing market," she said.

"Sometimes people for whatever reason their lease expires and sometimes it takes a long time to get back into housing, as well as things like domestic violence - there are other factors as well but it's not just the people who make poor lifestyle choices.

"There's an increasing number of people The Salvation Army are coming across who are locals, in the past people who were on the move didn't come to Orange in winter because it was too cold but now there are people staying around because this is where their family or home or connections are."

Manager of commissioning and policy at the Department of Communities and Justice Dennis Shrimpton echoed Mrs Rankin's comments around homelessness being a "complex" issue.

He said $2 million was spent each year trying to combat homelessness in Orange, split between Housing Plus' general approach and Veritas House's youth-targeted programs.

He said a forum on Friday at Orange Function Centre from 10am to 3pm was aimed at "de-mystifying" support systems around homelessness.

"It will help people learn to manage the services system and get access to service providers," he said.

Fusion's event is held on Friday night, with a free dinner from 7pm.