Videos circulating on social media show homeless people in Auckland being taunted. Video / Supplied
A video showing a homeless person in Auckland being mocked and taunted is doing the rounds on social media, with the alleged culprits identified and their actions widely condemned.
The video, believed to have been recorded last weekend in Auckland city, shows a group of young people targeting a homeless person sitting in a bus stop.
Two separate young men approach the person and throw food and rubbish at them.
A caption attached to the video suggests the group found their actions funny, saying: "HAHAHAHAHA I'm f***ing weeing myself."
The video was sent to the Herald with the online usernames of those believed to have taken part, and those individuals have been named online and their profiles hit with messages calling them out.
It also included a screenshot of a purported conversation with one of the alleged attackers, who said he was "feeding the homeless".
Their actions were described online as "disgusting", with one person writing: "You guys are so disgusting. Clearly feel like s*** yourselves so you have to go and make people without literal homes feel worse. The worst kind of people, f***ing foul."
The group is seen harassing the homeless person as they sit in a bus stop.
Police told the Herald that they were not immediately aware of the incident being reported to them.
The homeless community of Auckland'S CBD is among the most visible parts of Aotearoa's growing homeless population.
The everyday struggles faced by those on the streets leads to dramatically reduced life spans.
Homeless New Zealanders are dying 30 years younger than those with a roof over their heads, a 2020 study found.
"Homeless people are dying because healthcare is so out of reach," Debbie Munroe, a volunteer at Waka of Caring told the Herald at the time.
"Our homeless don't have a ID, they don't have money. Surely there are doctors willing to treat people with no money but there's not."
The NZMJ study found that the average age for a homeless New Zealander to die was 45 years. Of the 70 suicides, it was younger at 38 years.
Researchers of the study examined coroners' reports of 171 deaths of New Zealanders with "no fixed abode" when they died during 2008 to 2019.
More than three-quarters of the deaths (129) died from conditions that could have been avoided had they received timely and effective healthcare interventions, researchers said.
"The main findings of this study are the devastating and dehumanising consequences of homelessness that result in premature and preventable deaths," the report said.
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