People's Project was a "housing first" initiative which focused on finding rental properties for people and then providing wraparound support to fix problems that led to homelessness.
Ms O'Sullivan said they were in the throes of assessing options to decide what the initiative would look like for Tauranga. It needed local and central government support.
"We are learning a lot in a short space of time."
Since the steering group formed last June, it had looked at the research and what other cities were doing.
"We needed to think strategically and act quickly."
She said they wanted to offer a front door to the homeless, instead of vulnerable people getting bounced around so much they became exhausted and gave up.
''We aim to engage with the private sector more than we have been.''
Te Tuinga's executive director Tommy Kapai Wilson said Whare Kaa and Whare Potae opened three weeks ago, boosting Te Tuinga Whanau's emergency houses to five and currently providing emergency shelter for 19 families.
Mr Wilson said the difference between what was planned by the steering group and Te Tuinga was that Te Tuinga was not a hub of external agencies and did not use a "housing first" model. It concentrated pretty much on Maori, using Whakapapa to reconnect families and preparing them to be good tenants first, rather than the other way around.
Te Tuinga could feed into the steering group's programmes once people had completed the programme to be good tenants, he said
Mr Wilson said they had tried the housing first approach but found people were carrying so much baggage that Te Tuinga got them back again before all their problems could be fixed.
Council community and culture committee chairman Terry Molloy told a recent meeting Tauranga was only weeks away from getting a similar project to the People's Project, saying it was the preferred approach and they were now waiting for a response from funders before deciding it could proceed.
A small contribution could be made from the council's community development funds
Councillor Steve Morris said he was very open to the idea of the council assisting them.
"It is an issue that affects everyone. It is no good having mums and their kids living in cars in our city."
Merivale School principal and Labour's candidate for Tauranga Jan Tinetti said she was rapt the initiative was coming up with a solution.
Although the homeless problem was not at the same level as this time last year, cases were still being brought to her attention.
A mother who had spent two weeks sleeping in a car had just got emergency accommodation in the Summit Motor Lodge, and a family with five children had just got into a house after living in a one-room cabin.
"I have a dream that we will get a nationwide solution to stop it happening. We don't want families getting into that situation in the first place.
"But if we can do something for our Tauranga homeless, then that is great. When a lot of agencies work together, it makes it really strong."
