In Argentina they call them "Los Trapitos" (The Raggies).
They're the kids with the rags and bottles of water who make a few bucks by washing your windows while you wait at the lights.
There, they've become a syndicated mafia run by their various Dickensian Fagins and are not to be messed with.
I've found the Whangarei "Trapitos" to be courteous and friendly even when they wash my window for free.
Ask them what their plans are and you'll get a variety of answers.
One wants to join the Army but has no idea how he'll get the qualifications or what he needs to get there.
Another is "just doing this Miss till I join my uncle - he's cooking in Australia - I want to be a chef".
Another thinks he'll stay washing windows: "At least it's a job Miss. I was down [insert name of small town] with Dad looking for work but some guys hated me and cut me up. Like nearly killed me. Dad said it was safer back here - at least I'm not getting stabbed."
These snatched conversations between colour changes in lights have left me worried about this tribe of lost boys and depressed at some of the talk about them.
It's hard for most of us to understand the kind of chaos that reigns in some of the lives of our youngest citizens and what they have to do every day to try and rise above it.
Three of the boys I recognise from an alternative education organisation (edu-speak for students who have been expelled from other schools) where I taught literacy a few years ago.
Testimony to the abandoned corner of education "businesses" that seem to lack rigorous auditing or a passing interest in these children's actual education.
They do not seem to fit under the professional protection of the teachers' union or the Ministry of Education.
It could be a preposition problem - these organisations are supposed to proved an alternative form of education not an alternative to it in the form of expensive baby-sitting.
While they may get some of the relational stuff right with some of their charges they are poorly funded and often stop where the actual education part should be starting, along with highly resourced and accountable specialist professionals.
Simply pumping more resources into the current organisations that exist without rigorous auditing would be pointless.
The lost boys (and the less visible girls) may be our secret but they are many and they are no longer invisible.
Provided nepotism and regional corruption don't come into play, the Far North and Gisborne district mayors' bid for a social investment approach to eradicate the entrenched poverty that causes cross-ministry chaos and tragic outcomes for kids is a good one.
Our youngest citizens and their employment is indeed a community not a "one ministry" issue. What do we have to lose?
"Los Trapitos" themselves speak louder than any press release or ministry stats.
Residents in the Far North pay up to $5000 in rates but get few services.