Watch NZH Local Focus: Government's emergency housing not enough

As the sun sets each night, people retreat home, to shelter, warmth, and food.

But more and more people are now calling those basic necessities a luxury - with homelessness on the rise.

Myles Hemopo spends his nights on Napier's streets.

"I've been able to go to sleep in the rain, I think if you're alive then life's alright."

Agencies which work with the homeless eagerly awaited the Government's budget announcement.

Whatever It Takes General Manager Caroline Lampp says: "I was hoping the budget might have had some more creative ideas around housing and it doesn't appear to have had that."

A number of Housing New Zealand properties have been pulled down in Napier leaving empty lots, Mrs Lampp says replacements aren't being built quickly enough.

"The Government... who owns Housing New Zealand, have a moral obligation to build more properties in Napier."

And, she says the Government's offer of emergency housing isn't a long-term solution.

"We've got people who need homes, so common sense says that actually what is needed are more social housing places in this region and the current emphasis on emergency housing isn't going to fix that."

People can only stay in emergency housing for up to 12 weeks.

Mrs Lampp says at the end of those 12 weeks people will still need somewhere to go.

"That's only going to create a bottleneck further down the track and doesn't actually deal with the real issue which is lack of affordable, long-term housing for people."

It's a shortfall that Mrs Lampp can't see any long-term solution for in the Government's 2017 budget.

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