Kerre Woodham: Compassion doesn't feed a family

As you will have heard, the Salvation Army has released its 18th State of the Nation report and it paints a grim picture. New Zealanders are worse off than they were a year ago in terms of food security, employment, and housing, according to the data. Mike Hosking made the point this morning that the Sallies report seldom makes for good news. It's not often you're cracking the champagne going ‘well that’s sorted child poverty – done, homelessness solved’. The Sallies are focused on caring for those who are struggling for whatever reason – for those who have slipped through the cracks, for those whose needs are complex and varied. But according to the report author, it's the worst set of results he's seen in six years of writing the report.  

This doesn't surprise me. Times are tough for people with jobs, without drug and alcohol addictions, with homes and children in education, you can only imagine how tough it is for people who have limited choices. The cruel reality of a recession is that when more people than ever before are looking for help, fewer people are able to give it. Government funding has been reduced, and people are finding it more difficult to contribute to charitable organisations. The number of people receiving income support in 2024 exceeded 400,000 —a record high— and unemployment returned to levels seen at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.  

Yes, it's called chickens coming home to roost. This is what happens after soaring inflation and enormous budget blowouts. It's awful, and it's hard, and it's painful, and those who are struggling already suffered disproportionately. Salvation Army Principal Social Policy Analyst and the report author Paul Barber spoke to Mike Hosking this morning and said a stable home is vital to the well-being of a community.  

“We've seen a really mixed story around homelessness and housing. We've seen a fantastic increase in the number of public houses, so social housing available to help people who are waiting for or need a home. But on the other hand, we've also seen a disturbing rise in the street homelessness, as people's emergency housing support’s been ended.  

“Our view is it's important to be beside people, to help them get stability in their lives and to help people have their lives transformed. And what we see when social housing is doing well, that's exactly what happens, and in fact, that's why we strongly support increasing community and Kainga Ora government owned public housing, so that we can actually help people, help end homelessness. That's the dream and we've seen a lot of progress in that space, and we'd really like to see that continue.” 

Yes, we certainly saw Labour pushing out as many state houses as Kainga Ora could build in the last years of its government, and hopefully Paul Barber heard Simon Moutter when he came in to explain the vision of Kainga Ora last week. That they want to have a sustained building program that's not subject to ebbs and flows, that it's a sustained building program that will allow houses to be built for those who need them.  

Paul Barber said what we need is more compassion and more help for those people who are really, really struggling, and that is a lovely sentiment and what you would expect from the Salvation Army. But ultimately, it is not terribly helpful. Compassion doesn't feed a family. You can have all the compassion in the world for people who are doing it tough, but if you haven't got any money leftover in your pocket at the end of the week you can't do anything about it.  

And yes, of course more help is needed for people who are struggling, but help costs money, and where does that help come from? When a country is in recession, when people who do have jobs and pay cheques have less in their pockets every week, there isn't the money to fund the sor

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Carrywood and Morning's podcast from News
Talks head be.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
As you will have heard. The Salvation Army has released
its eighteenth State of the Nation report, and it paints
a grim picture. New Zealand is a worse off than
they were a year ago in terms of food security,
employment and housing according to the data. My Costing made
the point this morning that the Sallies reports seldom makes

(00:33):
for good news. It's not often you're cracking the champagne
going well, that sorted, child poverty done, homelessness solved. The
Sallies are focused on caring for those who are struggling
for whatever reason, for those who have slipped through the cracks,
for those whose needs are complex and varied. But according
to the report author, it's the worst set of results

(00:55):
he's seen in six years of writing the report. This
doesn't surprise me. Times are tough for people with jobs,
without drug and alcohol addictions, with homes and children in education.
You can only imagine how tough it is for people
who have limited choices. And the cruel reality of a

(01:17):
recession is that when more people than ever before are
looking for help, fewer people are able to give it.
Government funding has been reduced. People are finding it more
difficult to contribute to charitable organizations. The number of people
receiving income support in twenty twenty four exceeded four hundred thousand,

(01:37):
a record high. An unemployment returned to levels seen at
the height of the COVID nineteen pandemic in twenty twenty. Yes,
it's called chickens coming home to roost. This is what
happens after soaring inflation and enormous budget blowouts. It's awful,

(01:57):
and it's hard, and it's painful, and those who are
struggling already suffered disproportionatelyvation. Army principal social policy analyst and
the report author Paul Barber spoke to My Costing on
the My Costing breakfast this morning. Instead of stable home
is vital to the well being of a community.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
We've seen a really mixed story around homelessness and housing.
We've seen a fantastic increase in the number of public houses,
so social housing available to help people who are waiting
for a need a home. But on the other hand,
we've also seen a disturbing rise in the street homelessness
as people the emergency housing support has been ended. Our
view is it's important to be beside people to help

(02:41):
them against get stability in their lives and to help
people have their lives transformed. And what we see when
social housing is doing well, that's exactly what happens. And
in fact, that's why we strongly support increasing community and
going order our government owned public housing so that we
can actually help people, help mend homelessness. That's the dream,

(03:02):
and we've seen a lot of progress in that space
and we'd really like to see that continued.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
That was Paul Barber from the Salvation Army, and yes,
we certainly saw labor pushing out as many state houses
as Caying Order could build in the last years of
its government. And hopefully Paul Barbara heard Simon Musha when
he came in to explain the vision of Kying or
Order last week that they want to have a sustained
building program that's not subject to ebbs and flows, that

(03:31):
it's a sustained building program that will allow houses to
be built for those who need them. Paul Barber said,
what we need is more compassion and more help for
those people who are really really struggling, and that is
a lovely sentiment and what you would expect from the
salvation army, but ultimately it is not terribly helpful. Compassion

(03:54):
doesn't feed a family. You can have all the compassion
in the world for people who are doing it tough,
but if you haven't got any money left over in
your pocket at the end of the week, you can't
do anything about it. And yes, of course more help
is needed for people who are struggling, but help cost money.
And where does that help come from When a country's

(04:15):
in recession, when people who do have jobs and paychecks
have lessened their pockets every week, there isn't the money
to fund the sort of programs that Paul Barbara is
talking about. It didn't just happen. It's not as though
there's been a change of government and all of a
sudden there have been resets and we've decided that we

(04:37):
don't care about people, and that we don't care about
social housing, and that we don't care about homelessness. What
we need, far more than compassion is a productive, thriving economy,
so that people who can can look after themselves and
people who can't will benefit from assistance provided by a

(05:01):
government that's got plenty of money flowing into its coffers
through exports through increase taxation, and from caring donors who
have got more than enough and are happy to share.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
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