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In a quiet Victorian town nestled among rolling hills, local mourners will gather at a recreation centre to farewell two of their much-loved neighbours.

Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, died in hospital after their daughter-in-law Erin Patterson cooked them a beef wellington at her Leongatha home in Victoria's southeast on July 29.

On Thursday afternoon, the pair will be remembered at a public memorial service at their local Korumburra Recreation Centre.

Mourners will also have Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, in their thoughts, after she too died following the lunch.

The Korumburra Baptist community has been praying for the recovery of Mrs Wilkinson's husband and local church pastor Ian Wilkinson, who remains in hospital in a critical but stable condition.

South Gippsland mayor Nathan Hersey said a large turnout was expected at the service.

"For a lot of people, it's going to mean an opportunity to again, reflect, but also to give thanks for the lives of people who have been instrumental in our community," Cr Hersey told AAP.

"It's going to be closure to say goodbye and to have that opportunity to grieve that hasn't been there because it's been so public and been such an unusual circumstance.

"It's been a very almost unprecedented experience for people in the area with the way it has played out so publicly but also because it is people who have contributed so much."

The couple was recently laid to rest during a private burial after the town was thrust into the spotlight over speculation about what led to the deaths.

Police believe the four people were all poisoned by death cap mushrooms.

Ms Patterson, who has not been charged, is considered a suspect.

Cr Hersey said he understood Mr and Mrs Patterson's memorial service would reflect the couple's Christian faith.

"The Patterson family has expressed their deep gratitude for the outpouring of love, support and understanding during this challenging time," an earlier statement issued on behalf of the family said.

"In keeping with Don and Gail's wishes and character, the family has chosen to commemorate their lives in a manner that reflects their values and the love they shared with their community."

The 46-year-old Ms Patterson has claimed she made the beef wellington using button mushrooms from a major supermarket and dried mushrooms bought at an Asian grocery store.

Her estranged husband Simon was due to attend the lunch but pulled out, while her children were also out of the house at the time of the meal.

The children ate the leftover beef wellington the next day but Ms Patterson scraped off the mushrooms because they don't usually eat them, she said.

Ms Patterson said she ate a serving and later suffered bad stomach pains and diarrhoea, contrary to the suggestion of detectives that she did not fall ill.

The Victorian Department of Health is required to act if there is a food safety incident.

There have been no ordered recalls of mushroom products in the state since the suspected poisonings.

Media will attend Thursday's public memorial service.

© AAP 2023

The rental crisis is driving a growing number of Australians into homelessness, particularly people from marginalised communities, a parliamentary inquiry has heard.

Homelessness Australia CEO Kate Colvin revealed the number of people accessing services increased by 7.5 per cent since December 2022 and 83 per cent of those 96,000 were struggling with housing or financial stress.

Record low vacancy rates have exacerbated hardships for people with disabilities, single parents, young tenants and those from Indigenous backgrounds.

"It's supercharging discrimination and making it almost impossible for marginalised communities to get housing," Ms Colvin told a rental crisis inquiry hearing on Wednesday.

A Canberra renter, known to the inquiry as Samira, said she and her family were living in a dilapidated property filled with broken fixtures and had been unable to find a home that could accommodate their health conditions despite searching for the past eight months.

"We had no choice," she said.

"The conditions weren't great but it was within our budget."

Asking rents have surged 34 per cent since the start of the COVID pandemic and are forecast to increase by another 10 per cent in 2023.

And more than 640,000 households are in severe rental stress.

This comes despite the number of dwellings per adult in Australia increasing since ANU researcher Ben Phillips' 2017 paper revealed many parts of the country had a housing surplus.

Maiy Azize, spokesperson for housing and homelessness organisation Everybody's Home, says politicians need to reconceptualise the rental crisis.

"It's widespread view in government that all we need is more supply and that will trickle down, put downward pressure and in this magical way, create affordable housing," she said.

"(But) what we've been seeing is that wealthier people are able to use more housing and opting to live in smaller households which takes up more space. Sometimes people buy extra homes and keep them vacant."

Ms Azize believes the solution lies with the government to build new properties and buy homes off the private sector, before redistributing them to people in need, which would increase the number of affordable homes.

The federal government's Housing Australia Future Fund, which is being held up in the Senate, outlines a plan for 30,000 homes over the next five years.

Ms Azize believes this will help but says it is not a long-term solution.

State and territories also agreed to reforms at a national cabinet meeting earlier in August, including a limit on rent increases to once a year and minimum rental standards.

But representatives from rental unions across the country believed the proposals did not go far enough.

"Some elements, like no-grounds evictions, are really foundational and we just cannot have a sensible regulatory scheme while those exist," said Leo Patterson Ross, NSW representative for the National Association of Tenants Organisations.

Real Estate Institute of Australia president Hayden Groves said he was sympathetic to the challenges tenants faced, but rent controls and freezes would cause landlords to remove their properties from the rental market.

He defended rent rises, claiming they were a result of the pandemic period, when landlord costs such as insurance premiums and council rates continued to rise while states imposed rent hike moratoriums.

© AAP 2023

A record number of Australians are living with severe rental stress even though there is no shortage of housing, a parliamentary inquiry has been told.

The number of dwellings per adult in Australia has increased since ANU researcher Ben Phillips' 2017 paper revealed many parts of the country had a housing surplus.

Yet asking rents have surged 34 per cent since the start of the COVID pandemic and are forecast to increase by another 10 per cent this year.

And more than 640,000 households are in severe rental stress.

A Canberra renter, known to the inquiry as Samira, said she and her family were living in a dilapidated property filled with broken fixtures and had been unable to find a home that could accommodate their disabilities despite searching for the past eight months.

"We had no choice," she said.

"The conditions weren't great but it was within our budget."

Maiy Azize, spokesperson for housing and homelessness organisation Everybody's Home, says politicians need to reconceptualise the rental crisis.

"It's widespread view in government that all we need is more supply and that will trickle down, put downward pressure and in this magical way, create affordable housing," she told the rental crisis inquiry on Wednesday.

"(But) what we've been seeing is that wealthier people are able to use more housing and opting to live in smaller households takes up more space. Sometimes people buy extra homes and keep them vacant."

The Australian Taxation Office recently revealed one per cent of investors own one quarter of all investment properties across the country.

"We've brought the wrong people in to support housing, and it's part of why we are where we are now," she said.

Ms Azize believes the solution lies with the government to both supply and distribute affordable housing.

It could both build and buy homes off the private sector, before redistributing them to people in need, which would increase the number of available affordable homes.

The federal government's Housing Australia Future Fund, which is being held up in the Senate, outlines a plan for 30,000 homes over the next five years.

While Ms Azize believes it will help, it is not a long-term solution to the shortfall.

State and territories agreed to reforms at a national cabinet meeting this month, including a limit on rent increases to once a year and minimum rental standards.

But representatives from rental unions across the country believed the proposals did not go far enough.

"Some elements, like no-grounds evictions, are really foundational and we just cannot have a sensible regulatory scheme while those exist," said Leo Patterson Ross, NSW representative for the National Association of Tenants Organisations.

Many renters feel they cannot report mould or maintenance issues in their homes.

"I feel like I can't complain or make a fuss about anything because the landlord might evict me," one tenant submitted to the union.

Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather said Australian renters were treated as "second class citizens".

"With Germany now planning on freezing rents for three years, the prime minister should take note of what national leadership looks like and finally work with the states and territories at national cabinet to freeze and cap rent increases," he told AAP.

There are eight million tenants in Australia, while 67 per cent of people own their homes.

© AAP 2023