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RNZ News
3 days ago
- General
- RNZ News
Is it better to give someone who's homeless cash or food if they ask for help?
"I think many of the people on the street feel rejected, feel outsiders, that they're being looked down on." Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin People working in top jobs at charities responding to poverty say the choice of giving food or money to those asking for help is tough and they often feel conflicted. Many communities are seeing a spike in homelessness, with a steady rise in the number of people living in cars, parks or on the streets. That included Auckland, where there were more than 650 living rough on the streets according to the last count in January, and outreach workers expected that to rise over winter. Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson said giving is a personal decision. "For some people giving money is okay for some it isn't, for some it is giving money to an organisation, for some it's shouting someone a feed or offering to buy someone a pie or a drink while they're in the shop," she said. "For others it's really striking up that conversation and encouraging them to access services like the mission." Robinson said she often feels conflicted about what to give. "There are times when I have given them money and there are times when I haven't, which is ironic for me as the Auckland City Missioner that I say both of those things," she said. "I'm just conscious that sometimes $5 is the difference between someone having some food. It's a tangible expression of I actually genuinely care for what's going on for you in this moment." Hustling or begging at traffic lights was against the law and she urged people to consider theirs and others' safety in such situations. Robinson said a human response was needed and it's important not to ignore those living rough - she encouraged compassion. Wellington City Missioner Murray Edridge agreed. "I have a belief that the best possible thing we can do is greet them as you would anybody else, so say hello, make eye contact, engage with them, ask them how their day is," he said. "I've been doing that for a number of years because I heard directly from one of them that one of the biggest challenges they faced is that people wouldn't make eye contact." Edridge said he takes that approach and prefers to buy someone lunch or something they need rather than give cash. He said the mission is seeing a rare level of poverty in its 120 year history. "We're facing some huge social issues and my encouragement to government, to decision makers, to policy setters, to local councils and to leaders in our community is that we need to pay attention to this because if we don't then we all lose." Edridge has been the city missioner for seven years and said he felt privileged to be in a position to help others. "There's no downside to helping people get on and have an improved life, in fact the benefit that accrues to each one of us is huge." Ian Hutson works as a mission officer for the Salvation Army and said the question of what to give people on the street is not straight-forward. "In my case I often don't give but refer to agencies that can help but occasion you get the feel that it's fine to give." He said people need to feel part of society, regardless of their circumstances. "People are often somewhat frightened or fearful of people on the street and sometimes I think a certain amount of engaging and acknowledging them but without necessarily giving anything is at least one thing," Hutson said. "I think many of the people on the street feel rejected, feel outsiders, that they're being looked down on." He said individuals, groups and churches all need to help those in need. The missioners and Hutson said people experiencing homelessness should not be blamed for their circumstances, which often include challenges such as addiction or illness. Robinson is urging people to write to their local MP. "Contact your local representative and say to them that enough affordable housing is really important to you as a citizen, to use your power to communicate to our politicians how important it is to you because your view then enables them to shape their view." She said a lack of affordable housing is driving up homelessness and that needs to change.
RNZ News
21-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Foodbanks hungry for desperately-needed funding from Budget
Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi A collective of Auckland foodbanks has asked the government for ongoing annual funding for food parcels to distribute to those most in need. Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson said they have been given no assurance of such funding and are waiting to find out what is in Thursday's budget. "This mission that I am responsible for, we are simply holding our breath, praying that food will be funded. The consequence of that food not being funded is very serious," she said. "It's also a reality that every food bank in the country is facing, so there is no assurance of any funding for any food relief for any organisation in the country." The mission is among a group of Auckland foodbanks that sent a closed letter to Minister of Social Development (MSD) Louise Upston ahead of the budget. The Salvation Army runs 60 foodbanks and is among signatories, its food security manager Sonya Cameron said they need secure multi-year funding. "We're really in a situation of not being able to plan, not knowing come beginning of July whether we'll have enough funding to keep going in terms of supporting people who are coming to our foodbanks." Cameron said its direct government funding had dropped by two-thirds and they were waiting to find out what was in Thursday's budget. "We're obviously really nervous, we've asked MSD if they can let us know as soon as they possibly can," she said. "The concern is not just for ourselves but other foodbanks. We've already seen other foodbanks who've closed down or struggled to provide decent support and when others close down that increases the pressure on other foodbanks such as ourselves." Foodbanks started to receive direct government funding in 2020 during the pandemic and over the following four years more than $200 million was invested in the sector. Food security funding was extended with one-off grants to 13 providers last year including the mission, which received a one-off $700,000 from MSD for food parcels. Foodbanks started to receive direct government funding in 2020 during the pandemic and over the following four years more than $200 million was invested in the sector. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi Robinson said the mission has the staff and systems in place to distribute 50,000 food parcels and that funding meant they did not have to reduce food parcels by more than half to 20,000 - during a cost of living crisis. The mission will have distributed between 35,000 to 40,000 food parcels by the end of June - each parcel feeds a family of four for three meals, for four days. Robinson said it would cost an annual $30m for the government to meet the basic needs of people who are literally hungry. She said many families did not have enough income to cover the cost of housing and were seeking food support. "There is a whole range of people who are coming to us who are needing support for food," she said. "It means that kids are hungry, kids are hungry when they go to school. It means mothers are doing everything within their power to get through a day on very limited food or no food." Finance Minister Nicola Willis this month announced a $190m Social Investment Fund, which is part of a broader $275m commitment over four years to the government's social investment approach. The fund would be governed by the new Social Investment Agency and was expected to invest in at least 20 initiatives in its first year. It's not clear yet whether that includes food security initiatives. Cameron said the Salvation Army is facing significant funding drops across all of its services at a time when there is increasing demand. Some foodbanks have had to reduce their services. "What we're already finding is a lot of them have had to reduce the number of days or hours that they're open and set timeframes for whanau coming back to limit demand." Cameron said the organisation was seeing people struggling with the longer-term effects of hunger and malnutrition. "They've got no energy, food consumes all of their thoughts due to their hunger and they're ending up with chronic health conditions, poor mental health." Longer term, she said there needs to be a national food security strategy, such as what Australia's new Labour government is looking to do with Feeding Australia. "We talk proudly about being able to feed 40 million people overseas yet we've got 27 percent of our children who are hungry here. We produce more than enough good food, we just need to keep some of it here," Cameron said. "It would be great to see that this government starts prioritising feeding New Zealanders too." Robinson said they wanted the government to enter the discussion about long term food security. "How do we ensure that all people in New Zealand have enough food? That is possible within our country. We make enough food to feed 40 million of us," she said. "So this is not about production of food, this is about the distribution of food and then particularly the distribution of income." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Newsroom
20-05-2025
- Business
- Newsroom
Govt should defuse NZ's social timebomb – but won't
Analysis: As the coalition Government's second Budget approaches, we should question where New Zealand is heading. The 2024 Budget laid out the strategy. Tax cuts and landlord subsidies were prioritised with a focus on cuts to social and infrastructure spending. Most of the tax package went to the well-off, while many low-income households got nothing, or very little. Even the tiny bit of the tax package directed to low-income people fell flat. Family Boost has significantly helped only a handful of families, while the increase of $25 per week (In Work Tax Credit) was denied all families on benefits, affecting about 200,000 of the very poorest children. In the recession, families that lost paid work also lost access to full Working for Families, an income cut for their children of about $100 per week. No one worked out how the many spending cuts would be distributed, but they have hurt the poor the most. These changes are too numerous to itemise but include increased transport costs; the reintroduction of prescription charges; a disastrous school lunch system; rising rents, rates and insurance; fewer budget advisory services; cuts to foodbank funding and hardship grants; stripping away support programmes for the disabled; inadequately adjusted benefits and minimum wage; and reduced support for pay equity and the living wage. The objective is to save money while ignoring the human cost. For example, a scathing report of the Auditor General confirms that Oranga Tamariki took a bulldozer to obeying the call for a 6.5 percent cut in existing social services with no regard to the extreme hurt caused to children and struggling parents. Budget 2025 has already indicated that Working for Families will continue to go backwards with not even inflation adjustments. The 2025 child and youth strategy report shows that over the year to June 2024 the number of children in material poverty continued to increase, there were more avoidable hospitalisations, immunisation rates for babies declined, and there was more food insecurity. We can see the human costs all around us in homelessness, food insecurity, and ill health. Already we know we rank at the bottom among developed counties for child wellbeing and suicide rates. Abject distress existing alongside where homes sell for $20m-$40m is no longer uncommon, and neither are $6m helicopters of the very rich. Changes in suicide rates (three-year average), ages 15 to 19 from 2018 to 2022 (or most recent four-year period available). Source: WHO mortality database At the start of the year, Helen Robinson, CEO of the Auckland City Mission, had a clear warning: 'I am pleading with government for more support, otherwise what we and other food relief agencies in Auckland can provide, will dramatically decrease. This leaves more of Auckland hungry and those already there become more desperate. It is the total antithesis of a thriving city.' The theory held by this Government is that by reducing the role of government and taxes, the private sector will flourish, and secure well-paid jobs will be created. Instead, as basic economic theory would predict, we have been handed a long and protracted recession with few signs of growth and prosperity. Budget 2025 signals more of the same. It would be a mistake to wait for simplistic official inequality statistics before we act. Our current destination is a sharply divided country of extreme wealth and extreme poverty with an insecure middle class. Underfunded and swamped social agencies cannot remove the relentless stress on the people who are invisible in the 'fiscally responsible' economic narrative. The fabricated bogeyman of outsized net government debt is at the core, as the Government pursues balanced budgets and small government-size targets. A stage one economics student would know the deficit increases automatically in a recession to cushion the decline and stop the economy spiralling into something that looks more like a depression. But our safety nets of social welfare are performing very badly. Rising unemployment has exposed the inadequacy of social protections. Working for Families, for instance, provides a very poor cushion for children. Many 'working' families do not have enough hours of work and face crippling poverty traps. Future security is undermined as more KiwiSavers cash in for hardship reasons. A record number of the talented young we need to drive the recovery and repair the frayed social fabric have already fled the country. The Government is fond of comparing its Budget to that of a household. But what prudent household would deliberately undermine the earning capacity of family members? The primary task for the Budget should be to look after people first, to allow them to meet their food, dental and health needs, education, housing and travel costs, to have a buffer of savings to cushion unexpected shocks and to prepare for old age. In the social security part of the Budget, NZ Super for all at 65, no matter how rich or whether still in full-time well-paid work, dominates (gross $25 billion). It's a sore thumb standing out alongside much less generous, highly targeted benefits and working for families, paid parental leave, family boost, hardship provisions, accommodation supplement, winter energy and other payments and subsidies. Given the political will, research shows we can easily redirect at least $3b from very wealthy superannuitants to fixing other payments to greatly improve the wellbeing of the young. This will not be enough but it could be a first step to the wide rebalancing needed. New Zealand has become a country of two halves whose paths rarely cross: a social time bomb with unimaginable consequences. It is a country beguiled by an egalitarian past that is no more.
