Katie Murray loves Kaitaia. Whatever ails it, she sees it as a community that is still small enough for folk to know their neighbours, and to help them when they're struggling. But the CEO of Waitomo Papakainga is calling on it to recommit to that philosophy.
"We're told the economy is lifting. Well it might be everywhere else, but all we see in Kaitaia is poverty," she said last week.
"We have families here who are really struggling, and we're asking the people of Kaitaia to remember how things used to be, when people who had a little to spare gave it to others who were really in need of a little charity."
The role of the Waitomo Papakainga Society Inc, established to provide a range of services to young people and whanau, included finding homes for homeless families, but finding a roof was only part of the job. Many families didn't have a stick of furniture to call their own.
"They don't even have a table and chairs where they can sit down and have a meal, talk to their kids," she said.
"Life could be so much better for these families if they had a few of the things that most of us take for granted."
Anyone who had any furniture they no longer needed, whether it be a couch, a dining table or a set of drawers, was urged to contact the society (on 408-0900) to arrange for it to be collected. Ms Murray and her colleagues at Waitomo Papakainga were doing what they could amongst themselves, but the need went far beyond what they could do.
"I know there's often all sorts of other stuff going on in these families, like choosing what they spend their money on, but this isn't about the parents, it's about kids," she added. "Just saying these parents are hopeless and leaving them to it doesn't help the kids, and none of this is their fault. And we have to start doing things better than we have been.
"Waitomo Papakainga has been here for 20 years now, and we're working with the kids of the kids we saw when we started. We're into the second generation, and things aren't getting any better.
"The answer has to come from within this town, and it can. We should be helping one another, as and when we can, but these day's everyone's going to the government. What's the government going to do? We need to do this ourselves. We need to go back to how we were, when people cared about their neighbours.
"It doesn't have to cost anyone anything. Look around at all the fruit that falls off trees in Kaitaia and lies on the ground. If you don't want it, give it to us, and we'll see that it goes to families, kids, who really need it.
"The poverty we are seeing now is made worse by the fact that some people are reluctant to help others. We starting to get like city people, where we don't know the people next door and we just stick to ourselves. We're becoming insular, but it doesn't have to be like that."