Make social housing pay automatic: NSW

Public housing tenants will automatically have rent deducted from their Centrelink payments in a effort to stop people being evicted and slipping into homelessness, under a proposal from the state government.

Brad Hazzard, the NSW Minister for Social Housing, said existing voluntary rent deduction schemes have failed, with 80 per cent of evicted tenants having previously participated in a voluntary scheme before withdrawing and falling behind in payments.

"I see too many children who have had their lives upended, their schooling disrupted and their health compromised by their family's inability to pay rent and maintain a secure home," he said in a statement on Thursday.

The proposal comes ahead of a meeting between state, territory and federal housing ministers on Thursday.