A social service manager says the financial pressures wrought by the housing crisis, COVID-19 and inflation have been compounded by recent weather events, putting many more Kiwis “on struggle street”.

Brook Turner, head of services development and partnerships at VisionWest, says many New Zealanders have been plunged into money troubles, forcing them to make difficult sacrifices.

“We set up a pantry restock pop-up or social supermarket in Glen Eden. People who’d been affected by the floods in Ranui, Swanson, Karekare, Muriwai, Bethells and Piha have come,” Turner told Newstalk ZB’s Good Friday breakfast show.

“I had the pleasure of talking with a young nursing student from a migrant family, living with her mum, trying to get ahead in her second year of nursing…

“They just had their house completely wiped out, and she was coming in to literally get food to feed her family. She’s a top student but she’d had to put her studies on hold to deal with the effects of the flood.”

Turner says it's truer now more than ever that any one of us is only two or three crises away from desperation and poverty.

The combination of a relationship breakdown, the loss of housing security and a mental health issue can be all it takes for someone to need a helping hand, he says.

“We can all be there,” Turner told hosts Kaitlin Ruddock and Peter Wolfkamp.

“It’s really important to remember that the face of poverty isn’t people who aren’t trying hard and are trying to beat the system and take the piss. The face of poverty now is people who are desperately trying to get ahead and circumstances have got in the way.”

Turner says he wishes New Zealand would get financial literacy in schools, as he believes it would prevent so many Kiwis needing the help of social agencies.

• Increased living wage unlikely to up the cost of living
• Can stress turn hair grey?
• Politics Central: How many Kiwis will be helped by the cost of living relief scheme?

“It takes far more than a social agency – we should be the end of the road.

“There should be a range of interventions before you have to rock up to our food service or get into one of our houses. And I think it definitely starts with education to make a difference.

“The fundamentals of financial literacy are so important, and so many people just don’t know. They don’t understand compound interest, they don’t understand what it means to pay 12.99% on a loan.”