'Magic' has been living on the streets for 43 years. He says the homeless have never seen anything like this lockdown.

"Now they're all panicking because we don't know how long the lockdown's gonna last for," he says.

His sole source of income - begging - has dried up. He's down to $20 a day from $50.

The few people out and about are ignoring them.

"People just got their own stuff to deal with, they are dealing with their own stuff," Johnny says.

More Kiwis are struggling, as COVID-19 causes job losses and pay cuts.

"More than being pushed into the streets, people are being pushed into unsafe overcrowded homes," Ricardo Menéndez-March from Auckland Action Against Poverty says.

Queues for welfare support have moved from footpaths to the phone lines - and they're only getting longer.

"People that were already reliant on needing to access hardship grants from WINZ, week by week, are now even struggling to get to them," says Menendez-March.

But help is here. Civil Defence has set up food parcel stations around the country. The one in Auckland's Spark Arena has been inundated. The number of people unable to buy food totals 7600, while 5600 parcels have already been delivered. About 1500 of those were sent on the Thursday before Easter.

"One of the things that we are noticing is people are reaching out for the very first time, so it might be the first time that they've needed some kind of welfare assistance," says Auckland Emergency Management Duty Controller Rachel Kelleher says.

With more beginner beneficiaries expected, help like that will be needed for a while yet.