A south Auckland councillor wants more support for the cities' most vulnerable after the tragic death of a rough sleeper earlier this week.
The 59-year-old homeless man was found dead in his sleeping bag outside the Manurewa Methodist Church on Tuesday in the bitterly cold.
He was the second of Auckland's rough sleepers to die on the streets in the past two weeks.
Now local civic leaders are re-evaluating their resources after the tragedy, with one councillor calling for Government intervention.
Daniel Newman said while the community is doing its best to provide, resources are spread too thin.
He said the needs of people so vulnerable and disengaged are complex, and "they now fall behind the usual social services and supports available to New Zealanders".
Mr Newman hopes the Government will boost funding for local services, and assist them in combating the growing problem.
"What we're trying to do as a group of civic leaders is identify those rough sleepers, assess their immediate needs, assess their longer term needs and coordinate services to wrap around those people."
He said while he supports the work being done in Manurewa, "obviously as we identify the scale of the challenge we are going to need to ensure that we are resourced to respond to that".
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