Budget 2020 wishlist: Now's the time to bridge inequalities

Awhina House general manager Angela Wallace. Photo / File

Significant funding for housing, mental health and addiction, and guaranteed income for all would help bridge the growing inequities in communities, welfare providers say.

Budget 2020 will be delivered on Thursdayand with economic pressures impacting more Bay of Plenty families, welfare providers are urging the Government to consider ways to help the country's most vulnerable.

Tania Lewis-Rickard, organiser of Kai Aroha. Photo / File

Kai Aroha's Tania Lewis-Rickard said demand was growing for services like hers, which feeds the homeless, so any allocation of funding for organisations working with vulnerable people would be appreciated.

"We are here for the long run and we are delivering a service that is needed but a huge chunk of our money goes towards renting the community hall. Funding from the Government to take that pressure off would be great" Lewis-Rickard said.

"Covid-19 has seen demand for our service grow significantly and that will continue as we move out of alert levels. We do this work out of love but this pandemic has made it tougher, so financial support is needed more now than ever."

Lewis-Rickard said beyond her immediate involvement with Tauranga's vulnerable, she would like to see investment in mental health services and housing.

Awhina House general manager Angela Wallace said in working with homeless women, her top priority was more investment into state housing.

"Coming out of Covid-19 we need to get the economy moving and more state housing is a good project that would see people in jobs.

"I think the Government has done an amazing job getting homeless into motels for lockdown. Now, the Government needs to leverage from there and get them into real homes of their own."

Wallace said funding for comprehensive services in mental health and addiction was also vital.

The Salvation Army is looking to the Budget for an economic package that will help shape the social and economic structure of New Zealand in a completely new way.

Nationally, the Salvation Army has identified five areas that it believes need investment.

These are a rigorous system of food security to ensure every Kiwi has access to food; an income guarantee so nobody is living in poverty; more strategic credit and debt regulation; a multibillion-dollar investment in housing and significant funding for mental health and addiction.

Lifewise chief executive Jo Denvir said her service's work with vulnerable families highlighted the stress of isolation for many families, particularly solo parents already living with financial pressure and food poverty.

"Lifewise believes about 20 per cent of the population are living with food poverty, overcrowded or inadequate housing, and are marginalised by a lack of digital access.

"To address our economic wellbeing as a country we need to address these serious inequalities as we move forward to recovery."