Creating a village of living pods is being considered as a short-term housing solution for the increasing number of rough sleepers in regional South Australia, an advocacy group says.

One such village is in operation at the New South Wales town of Wollongbar, near Lismore.

The pods look like shipping containers but have been converted into living spaces with kitchens and bathrooms and are being used to house people who lost their homes in the floods earlier this year.

Shelter SA executive director Alice Clark said finding suitable locations and funding were the biggest barriers to setting up a pod village.

"We've recently been talking about more temporary solutions that utilise some of the modular design dwellings that we see being used as work camps, quarantine facilities," she said.

"A quite small but self-contained living pod, with bedroom, bathroom and kitchenette, grouped together in a small village — that could be, at some point, removed if the need for them disappeared.

Shelters outside Adelaide?

Trish Spark from homelessness agency ac.care said setting up shelters in regional areas would be "extremely helpful".

"Even if the government was to look at shelters outside of Adelaide, that might help, especially when we have single people who have nowhere to go," she said.

But Dr Clark said there were lots of components to consider.

"If somebody suddenly said, 'Here's this big warehouse for you, you can have it and you can use it for free and you can help use it to help shelter people' — yes, you would be out of the rain and the wind, but it's not set up as accommodation," she said.

"What would the costs be of refurbishing a building like that, to provide dignified and safe accommodation for people who need it?

"And again, who would pay those costs?"

Dr Clark said some homelessness services and charities received government funding but still needed to fundraise to meet the increase in demand.

"The fundraising goes to providing meals for people who can't afford to feed their families and providing all sorts of other assistance for people," she said.

'Safety and viability'

Independent Member for Mount Gambier Troy Bell said the issues around homelessness were "complex", but discussions about solutions were underway.

"One of those [initiatives] was looking at vacant shops or vacant premises and what it would take to convert those into short-term accommodation," he said.

"There are some concerns around safety, particularly putting more than one family in each building."

Mr Bell said locals had suggested using large vacant buildings in Mount Gambier.

"People have spoken to me about perhaps larger premises that would hold numbers of people," he said.

"We've got to make sure the safety and the viability and supervision – if that's the model they go with – is looked at."