14 Hours Homeless campaign raises awareness of New Zealand's homeless

  • 13/10/2017
Kiwis will be sleeping outside on cardboard, couches or in cars.
Kiwis will be sleeping outside on cardboard, couches or in cars. Photo credit: Getty

Many Kiwis will be sleeping in cars on Friday night to raise awareness of the country's homeless.

More than 40,000 people are homeless in New Zealand and the 14 Hours Homeless campaign hopes to put the issue under the spotlight.

As part of the campaign, Kiwis have the chance to band together and spend 14 hours sleeping outside on cardboard, couches or in cars.

Rhondda Middleton from the Salvation Army says many people do not realise they may know someone who sleeps in a car.

"Generally, people have that dignity and they don't want to be ashamed of the fact that something may have happened - you know relationship breakdown - and are now sleeping in their car," she says.

"People might not even know, because people are so resourceful."

But Ms Middleton says eliminating the issue will take time.

"There hasn't been a magic bullet to change that. It's going to be a slow process and government will come in but it's not going to be fixed quickly," she says.

Auckland, Palmerston North, Wellington and Invercargill are holding the annual event.

Newshub.