Last week he released a letter to mark the third World Day of the Poor.

He says he starts each day with a walk around inner-city Wellington.

"The inner city looks different at 5 am, with mainly early morning workers and some rough sleepers on the streets, compared with later in the day when the city is bustling with activity," he said.

"My early morning walk is a time of prayer, and I am grateful that it gives me a brief perspective into lives that might not always be visible.

By the time the sun has arisen, the rough sleepers have packed up their belongings and will have moved onto the Compassion Soup Kitchen or other social services of the city.

But there are still glimpses of our unequal society on the streets of central Wellington during the daytime, and equally, there are always some voices raised seeking to ban buskers and beggars and to block access to bins where food is discarded."

Dew said poverty can be more in your face in the streets of South America and Europe than here in New Zealand.

"But sadly, the attitudes towards people experiencing poverty can be very similar. New Zealand has an enduring thread of judgmental attitudes toward the poor."

He said homeless people, rough sleepers and beneficiaries, are noted in regular outbreaks of vitriol towards those of our neighbours who have it rough.

Examine your conscience:

Dew invited people to examine their conscience in the week leading up to the World Day of the Poor.

He said smile before offering judgement or anything else.

Click here to read the whole letter.

Source

• Supplied

David McLoughlin
Communications Adviser, NZ Catholic Bishops
Te Huinga o nga Pihopa Katorika o Aotearoa

This year's report, Are you well? Are we safe? takes a wellbeing approach to social progress as a nation.

The report shows a lack of tangible progress in key areas.

"We cannot blame Government for everything that has or hasn't happened in terms of social progress," says the report's author, social policy analyst Alan Johnson.

He says however that as yet there are few signs that government policies are beginning to address seemingly entrenched aspects of poverty in New Zealand.

Johnson said The Government's promise of a wellbeing budget in 2019 is overdue but, in taking this approach, it is important that we do not gloss over the large and persistent inequalities which exist across our society.

Key findings

Negatives

• Rising rates of offender recidivism
• Evidence of increasing levels of activity related to social hazards such as alcohol, drugs and gambling
• Persistent gaps between Maori and Non-Maori across a wide range of wellbeing indicators signify entrenched patterns of disadvantage and perhaps systemic racism
• New Zealanders' debt per household has steadily increased to almost 100 per cent of GDP, which Johnson said poses a risk if interest rates or unemployment start to rise

Positives

• While most predictions were for further increases in the total number of people in prison, the number fell by almost 600
• A reduction in youth offending and teenage pregnancies
• Winter energy payment
• Work on homelessness
• Spending on hardship grants

Source

• Supplied: Issued on the Authority of Commissioner Andrew Westrupp (Territorial Commander) The Salvation Army, New Zealand Fiji, Tonga & Samoa Territory
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: stuff.co.nz

On this Saturday night, we're joined by volunteers who run the Te Puke, Tauranga and Hamilton branches of the Free Kitchen, which also operates in Rotorua and Christchurch. Continue reading

There are nearly 30 vulnerable Bay of Plenty children on Variety the Children's Charity's emergency waiting list for vital winter essentials, and more than 400 families nationwide. Read more

"He was shocked to learn that a friend of his was living in a van.

Because it was someone he knew it really brought it home to him how bad the situation is for some people.

It is bad enough that kids go to school hungry, but for school kids to be living under a bridge, it is just not good enough."

Continue reading

His warning came in the same week that New Zealand was featured in one of United Kingdom's national newspapers in a story about the New Zealand housing crisis.

The Guardian feature quoted Darryl Evans, CEO of Mangere Budgeting in South Auckland.

"On some roads in South Auckland every second house has additional accommodation erected - be it an occupied garage, a portable cabin with a chemical toilet, or tents pitched on the front and back lawn."

"Up until a few years ago, a family member might let you camp in the garage at no cost, as a temporary set-up," said Evans.

"But now landlords have cottoned on to how desperate people are, and are renting out garages or Portakabins for hundreds of dollars.

"This is not people who haven't been trying. They have been trying very hard and still they're failing," said Campbell Roberts of the Salvation Army, who has worked in South Auckland for 25 years.

"A few years ago people in this situation were largely unemployed or on very low-incomes. But consistently now we are finding people coming to us who are in work, and have their life together in other ways, but housing is eluding them."

Last week the government announced NZ$41.1m for emergency housing, but with winter mere weeks away, charities believe any assistance will come too late for most.

"We warned the government six or seven years ago that a housing crisis was looming," said Roberts.

"Successive governments have ignored our warnings, and now look where we are. The worst homelessness I have seen in 25 years."

"You might be able to survive like this in the summer, but you can't in winter. You just can't live like this in a New Zealand winter."

Pope Francis speaking on Wednesday morning at the weekly General Audience in St. Peter's Square decried the inequality and contradictions in the world as he reflected on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

He noted that the lives of these two people seem to run on parallel tracks; their living conditions are opposite and totally non-communicating: the rich man's front door is always closed to the poor man who hopes to eat some leftovers from the rich man's table.

Source

theguardian.com

en.radiovaticana.va

Image: theguardian.com

While official inflation is under control, housing costs have increased at twice the rate of wages and other incomes. With many families spending more than 60 per cent of their income on rent or mortgage payments.

Not enough remains for food and other essentials such as transport, clothing and health costs.

Despite recent improvements in the economy the latest figures released by the Office of the Children's Commissioner, show there are still 305,000 (2 in 5) Kiwi kids living in hardship.

No matter how poverty is defined, increasing numbers of our children belong to families who are poor by New Zealand standards.

There are real concerns about the standard of nutrition these children receive, evidence they miss out on adequate health care, and are also not making the most of educational opportunities.

Financial hardship places enormous pressure on family life and affects the emotional well-being of both the parents and the children, so they are often not able to make the best choices.

While some sideline critics are obsessed with questioning how hardship in New Zealand is measured and argue that it is all the fault of the parents, there are children going without who just wish they were equal with their peers.

When people compare conditions here to those in third world countries and say "that's where the real poverty is", they are effectively saying that because some countries are worse than New Zealand children who are deprived here should just be bloody grateful.

It is not a competition. We are not a Third World country and therefore we should not have children contracting Third World illnesses, and unsure of where and when their next meal will come from. Continue reading

• Julie Chapman is CEO of the KidsCan Charitable Trust. This article was published in the Dominion Post.