Over three-quarters of Irish people believe that, whatever the cost, housing should be provided for the homeless, while 63 per cent of people believe that the housing crisis is caused by Government inaction.
The figures, in a survey published by the homelessness charity Focus Ireland, show that the public "has become even further disillusioned with political resolve to tackle the problem".
Focus Ireland has published the figures to mark the start of its Right To A Home campaign.
Its chief executive, Mr Declan Jones, said that the housing crisis was deepening rather than easing.
"We're in the final year of the Government's three-year strategy, yet the number of people who are homeless is rising instead of falling. Meanwhile, there's a record total of 48,000 households, or 140,000 people, on housing waiting lists."
Mr Jones said that people wanted to see these problems dealt with effectively.
"We want as many people as possible to support our campaign to show this is the case and to help push homelessness and the housing crisis right to the top of the political agenda," he added.
The Government programme, Homelessness: An Integrated Strategy, was launched to great fanfare in May 2000 and set out a comprehensive national approach to solving the problem by the end of this year.
However, the most recent figures from the Department of the Environment and Local Government indicate that homelessness has increased nationally by 7 per cent - from 5,234 in 1999 to 5,581 in 2002.
Focus Ireland's survey found that 77 per cent of people believe that, whatever the cost, all homeless people should be provided with housing, while 78 per cent say that not enough is being done to help those who are homeless.
Mr Jones said he hoped that the findings of the survey would convince the Government that there were votes in addressing homelessness.
