It was wet, windy and cold for those sleeping rough in Auckland on Thursday night.
At least 135 were participants in the Lifewise Big Sleepout, fundraising to solve the problem of homelessness in New Zealand.
Nine Rainbow Youth members took part to focus on the effect a person's sexuality has on their living situation. Around 26 percent of homeless young people are forced onto the streets after coming out to their families.
Rainbow Youth director Duncan Matthews says front-line workers need to understand the issue.
"A lot of our front-line workers, when it comes to homelessness, are not trained how to talk to people about sexuality. It makes a lot of people uncomfortable, and people can start to bring in their own opinions."
The chairman of Te Puea Marae says we need to address poverty in order to tackle the problem of homelessness.
It comes in the wake of Labour's emergency housing policy, which chairman Hurimoana Dennis says isn't focusing on the right issue.
"If you deal with this whole situation that we've got now, you're actually going to reduce crime, you're going to reduce demand on social services."
On Thursday Labour announced an emergency housing policy to provide 1400 additional emergency places.
Newshub.
