Auckland's housing crisis doesn't just affect people with houses.
Many of the homeless feel they have no hope of getting a roof over their heads. They find they're being shoved from the city to the suburbs - even from park to park - and find it's hard to connect with the organisations that can help the most.
Just last week Orange Sky, a mobile washing van, visited the group. They say the charity is a great initiative, but they need support to get into housing and to get jobs if their lives are going to change for good.
Kayla Angel told Newshub she lived on the street for years and knows just how hard it is to get out. But now she doesn't do drugs and lives at home with her parents; her priority is her child.
She visits the park to help out her street brothers and sisters and said it's a struggle.
"They don't want to shit in the bush and live in the kaka and shit and piss in the grass, we got no porta loos, we got to walk all the way to the BP," she said.
Ms Angel said while she doesn't live on the street anymore, she still considers this group her street family.
Her advice to her brothers and sisters is to get the ball rolling and go to Work and Income, "and do an assessment for housing instead of sitting in a park".
She said it's a long process and it's "ultra hard" to get into a home.
This is just one group within the more than 3000 people counted as homeless or without permanent accommodation in Auckland's first homeless count.
One man told Newshub it's his dream is to be a driver - but he hasn't been able to get a job.
Another man said he's getting pushed from park to park, moved from Hayman to Puhinui and everybody is living on top of each other.
However while life is tough for those living rough, they aren't getting much sympathy from the neigbours.
Locals are fed up and the council told Newshub they've had a number of complaints. One woman said she is too scared to walk in her local park.
"I've lived here for 27 years and never seen this before," she told Newshub.
Many of the 16 people at the park said they do have a bed and are just coming to hang out. But for some, living in the bushes is their reality.
Auckland Council said it's committed to ending and preventing homelessness. But it's a task worked on by many Government and non-government partners.
"Where Auckland Council is aware of people sleeping rough, staff work closely with specialist support agencies," Community Empowerment manager Christine Olsen told Newshub.
"The primary concern is always the wellbeing of the people involved."
Ms Angel said she previously worked at Cotton On and loved it. Another retail job could change her life, and that of her six-year-old child, forever.
To help, email Lydia Lewis at LydiaLewis@mediaworks.co.nz
Newshub.
