Documentarian Bryan Bruce told Nelsonians the government prioritised "me-centric" spending and repeatedly denied the existence of child poverty.

Stoke School principal Pete Mitchener said a boy came to school last week shoeless and limping.

He and his two siblings were sharing a mattress the night before when he was pushed out and decided to sleep on top of the family's chest freezer because it was the warmest spot in the house.

He was "clipped around the ear" by his mother for oversleeping and his siblings took the better uniform items.

123rf.com The boy came to school without shoes and limping, the principal said.

Mitchener told about 100 people assembled at Nelson's first Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) post-budget event yesterday that the boy came to school without lunch and almost certainly without breakfast.

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One of six speakers addressing the shortcomings of the 2016 budget, Mitchener choked up explaining the challenges faced by families at his decile-four school.

"Even though we try to create community we have transiency. One family couldn't afford the rent so they moved, one was put into care because their parents were going to jail.

"We have families who don't have a washing machine, they're washing their clothes in the bathtub once a week."

Funding for initiatives like a community laundromat and breakfast club supported the wider Stoke School community but there was still "a lack of communication and cohesiveness" between hardworking community groups, he said.

Keynote speaker documentary maker Bryan Bruce said it was necessary to look "outside the school gates" for the causes of a 30 per cent achievement gap between each end of the school decile spectrum which furthered the poverty cycle.

New Zealanders "know we're not providing for [children] in the way that we should" but policy-makers supported "tax-averse" and "me-centric" thinking, he said.

"All economic decisions are moral decisions.

"By his third term Prime Minister John Key had brought himself to say child poverty existed and was a priority so it's surprising we don't find those words in the budget."

CPAG spokesperson Susan St John said 700 impoverished families who attended a similar event in Auckland illustrated how the Government's Working for Families scheme had failed to keep pace with $700 million worth of inflation.

Housing was a keen topic for fellow spokesperson Innes Asher and Nelson Tasman Housing Trust (NTHT) director Carrie Mozena.

Asher said respiratory illnesses like asthma, bronchiolitis and pneumonia were most common among those living in ageing, hard-to-heat homes.

Mozena said community housing providers such as the NTHT were an important but tiny part of housing nationally with 5,000 homes compared to the government's 68,000.

REESE: 'WE CAN BE THE MODEL'

Speaking at the CPAG event Nelson Mayor Rachel Reese said she wanted Nelson City Council to re-examine its approach to community investment.

"I would like us to do a stocktake across the region to see what money was coming from government agencies, what is coming now and how we are meeting that gap.

"My role as mayor is to advocate for this region to central government. I think we can be the model, I think we can do it."

Reese said she was becoming aware of a national "shift in spending and investment" that forced Nelson's community programmes to cut back.

"[Youth programme] Big Brothers, Big Sisters five years ago had funding for two employees and a vehicle. Now they have funding for one person and no vehicle."

She broached the notion that council should procure its contracted services through community groups rather than commercial outlets where possible.

"I'm really concerned about emergency housing and I think we will have to step into that space.

"I don't have any solutions but we need a blank piece of paper and we need to think about what's possible."