New Zealand's poor have hardly any money spare to pay for the essentials. Even paying rent can be a struggle, and many end up homeless.

Two Kiwi men own more wealth than the nation's poorest 30 per cent of adults, according to 2017 Oxfam report An economy for the 99 per cent.

While those two men wake up in the homes they most likely own, at least 30 per cent of Kiwis wake up in cars, caravans, shelters, on the streets, in rental properties or homes they cannot actually afford.

Since the property market is high, and the Kiwi dream of home ownership seems to be disappearing before our very eyes, many poor Kiwis rent. But the cost of rent is often beyond their means.

After paying rent and basic expenses, west Auckland resident Lynlie Beazley survives on just $22 per week. She describes herself as "the face of poverty" in New Zealand.

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"I don't know how I live each day," says Beazley, who last ate fresh fruit two years ago. "I don't know if I can go on any longer."

MAHVASH ALI/STUFF Lynlie Beazley says living on $22 a week is impossible.

Paratahi Tahuriorangi, a 69-year-old pensioner better known as "Hombre", was homeless for more than 4½ years.

He is grateful to homeless charity Love Soup Rotorua for giving him a home base and is "not in a hurry" to live rough again.

But despite now having a roof over his head and receiving the pension, he still struggles.

CHRISTEL YARDLEY/STUFF After paying rent, Paratahi Tahuriorangi, better known as "Hombre", has to make $170 of his pension money last a fortnight.

He gets $650 a fortnight on the pension, but $480 of that goes on rent.

"That's more than half of it gone," he says. "I had plans of moving out but now I can't because they put up the rent. And I can't get more money than what they give me on the pension."

After he has paid the power and gas bills, money leftover for the necessities is wanting.

CHRISTEL YARDLEY/STUFF Hombre, a 69-year-old pensioner in Rotorua, used to be homeless. Now he lives in a two-bedroom house.

"Yeah, nah, it's basically nothing. You can have a home but no money because of the cost of rent and the way things are."

BETTER OFF ON BENEFIT

During the election campaign, Aucklanders on low incomes said they would actually be better off on a benefit once they had factored in rent, childcare costs and transport to and from work.

LAWRENCE SMITH/STUFF Anti-poverty protesters gather outside Smith & Caughey in Auckland.

According to the 2013 census, the median gross income in the Auckland region was just under $30,000 a year, or about $576 a week. A worker on the living wage would be paid about $800 before tax, while a worker on minimum wage would get $630. The next census will be held in 2018.

The average cost of rent per week in Auckland in January, 2017 was $528 for a three-bedroom apartment.

'LUCKY TO BE LEFT WITH $80'

LAWRENCE SMITH/STUFF Auckland Action Against Poverty run an Impact day providing advice to beneficiaries on how to navigate the complex Work and Income system.

Formerly homeless woman Alisia Finau lives in a two-bedroom house in Hillsborough, Auckland, with her two sons, daughter and cousin. After money for rent and petrol costs is put aside, they are "lucky to be left with $80 for food for the week", she says.

"That's not very much. We're just trying to survive."

POVERTY V RELATIVE COMFORT

SUPPLIED Rita Taua-Nicholls said the living wage made a significant difference for her family.

For Auckland mum Rita Taua-Nicholls, getting paid the living wage has been the difference between a stressful life and a relaxed one.

Both she and her husband now earn above the living wage, which means her family can afford to save money after paying their rent, as well as "luxuries" such as internet at home and fresh produce.

Living Wage convenor Annie Newman says earning the living wage would give many the opportunity to fully survive and thrive in society.

"Low-paid workers, to feed their families, often have to work every day of the week and very long hours."

Figures from Statistics New Zealand released in October claimed that households in the bottom quintile of expenditure - the fifth of households which spend the least - rose 2.6 per cent in the year to September 30.

Statistics New Zealand consumer prices manager Matthew Haigh said poorer households faced a greater impact from rising costs of rent.

"Prices increased over the year for essential items like rents, food, and petrol, while they fell for some luxury items," Haigh said.

COST OF RENTING

While incomes in Auckland are higher than the national average, rents are also the highest, with the median weekly rent sitting at about $530 a week.

BARFOOT & THOMPSON This is what the average price of rent will get you in Auckland.

But moving to a cheaper area is not always a fail-safe plan.

In Hamilton, a woman found an apartment advertised at $325 a week. While it may sound reasonable for a three-bedroom rental, it boasted blood on the walls, smelt of cat pee, its window latches were broken and the back door only locked with a security chain.

And when people with money realised Tokoroa had some of the cheapest homes in the country, they flocked there like it was The Last Auction and bought all the houses. There aren't many left now.

Locals were driven out of their rentals to make way for the out-of-towners, so Tokoroa families had to start living in garages and caravans.

Salvation Army lieutenant Steve Molan has been turning away two to three families looking for rentals a week as the district's housing shortage intensifies.

"People are doing all sorts of things to try and get through. There are people with two or three kids having to live in caravans, in garages, or they are doubling up with families which is causing overcrowding," he says.

"There are just no houses in Tokoroa. Tokoroa is in a crisis."

The average residential property price in the South Waikato rose 24.4 per cent in the past year.

DRIVEN TO HOMELESSNESS

Labour's Housing Minister Phil Twyford says New Zealand has "the worst level of homelessness in the world".

On a bad night, there could be 41,705 homeless Kiwis - if not more. That figure comes from the 2013 census, and Twyford says the number would have increased over the past four years.

TEST YOUR RENT

Find out if the amount of rent you pay is reasonable by using the Tenancy Services site.