Cr Jack Evans will table a motion at Tuesday's Orange City Council meeting asking for Council support to form a working party to investigate the community fundraising, buying and supporting of a Sleepbus for Orange, after initial conversations with Orange Daybreak Rotary Club.

The motion is one of two to be put forward on the expansive issue of homelessness on Tuesday, with Cr Frances Kinghorne asking for council staff to perform an audit on the number of empty government-owned residential dwellings in Orange and the reason they are vacant.

Both councillors acknowledge OCC is looking at long-term strategies to address the lack of affordable and accessible accommodation in the city but Cr Kinghorne said the ball needed to start rolling.

Sleepbus is the brainchild of Melbourne man Simon Rowe who lived in his car for four-months back in the early 90s but didn't give homelessness a second thought until meeting a man trying to sleep on a busy street at midday in 2015. Equipped with a clean quilt the man explained he was trying to sleep during the day, because it was too dangerous to sleep at night.

Cr Evans acknowledged council was limited in what it could do to ease sleeping rough, but a Sleepbus could get 20 people off the street instantly and allow them to work on longer term solutions to the barriers they faced in getting a home.

He said, based on figures provided by Sleepbus.org it would cost $100,000 to set up a bus in Orange, and $50,000 year to operate it. While suggesting council could be a financial stakeholder, Cr Evans said he was more interested in the community driving the project with council's support.

"Obviously we've got to solve problems like where are we going to put it, how are we going to service it. There's a lot of questions we have to ask before we do it," Cr Evans said.

"It's been described as a band-aid solution, getting the people that are falling through the cracks. They've just become homeless, they might need somewhere to stay for that night or just a couple of nights. It's really supposed to be gateway into those other services that are existing."

In pushing for an audit of unused public housing, Cr Kinghorne said the information could aid in developing strategies that may contribute to easing the problem in Orange.

"My motion is an attempt to get the ball rolling in something that's potentially actionable in the short term," she said.

"It's just a start but surely doing something is better than just hand-wringing.

"It also ties in with Jack's motion which is also do-able in the near future."

Cr Kinghorne said the homelessness issue was having an impact on businesses battling to secure staff because prospective staff were battling to secure a home.

"The ramifications from this problem are huge, socially and economically. All levels of government are aware of this and all are taking some steps to consider the issue.

"My problem is that I don't think we can wait too much longer to actually do something about it."

Council staff said the review would be undertaken in conjunction with Housing NSW to ensure the accuracy of data.

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