Official figures released to Newshub show there are more than 3000 New Zealanders living homeless across the Tasman, and that Kiwis are much more likely than average to end up on Australia's streets.
With no access to Australian welfare, many rely on the kindness of strangers and a network of Kiwis has sprung up in Melbourne, credited with keeping New Zealanders alive.
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Every week, the Victoria Maori Wardens take to Melbourne's poorest streets. They're familiar faces in a foreign land, there to help keep young Kiwis out of trouble.
But instead of vulnerable youth, more and more, they find the homeless - New Zealanders who are in Australia that have lost their jobs and have nowhere else to go.
"I've seen a big growth in homelessness come in. And it's very sad," said Victoria Maori Wardens president Eva Tai-Rakena.
They find them under bridges, in cars and skate parks. At the bottom of a broken safety net, which many New Zealanders are falling through.
Official figures released to Newshub from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show there 3026 Kiwis living homeless across the Tasman.
That means 59 out of every 10,000 Kiwis in the country are homeless - a rate 20 percent higher than the national average.
"A lot of them come over here to live the Australian Dream, and they're finding very fast that that's not so any more," said Ms Tai-Rakena.
Shut out of Australian welfare, the homeless rely on fellow Kiwis to keep them alive.
"Who else is gonna do it? I can't block my ears and turn off, I can't do that," said Helen Tai.
She's from Melbourne Tautoko Whanau - a volunteer group for Kiwis in need.
Her Melbourne home has become a food bank stocked with donations from local supermarkets, which New Zealand families can have for free.
"We fill their car right up with food and... the children will say, 'Oh my gosh mummy, we're gonna eat tonight'," she said.
"It's horrible, but that's what we've heard."
Deliveries arrive three days a week, and within 48 hours it will all be gone. This week they'll feed more than 100 people, who'd otherwise have nowhere else to turn.
But as much as food in their stomachs, they also need roofs over their heads.
So Margaret Smith opens her home to strangers - Kiwi mothers and their children - for as long as it takes to get them back on their feet.
"They'd be sleeping in cars or overcrowded housing, or emergency homes. There's just no space, eh. I've got available space, and I choose to [let them in]," she said.
Melbourne Tautoko Whanau and its volunteers do all of this without any funding and make a big difference.
"I actually lived in my car for two and a half years ," one anonymous former homeless Kiwi told Newshub.
"Groups like this... are a lifeline. They keep us alive."
But they can only help so many so those at the coalface are calling for change.
"Both governments need to get together," said Ms Tai-Rakena.
"Just do whatever is necessary. Because at the end of the day it's about the people."
In the meantime, it falls to fellow Kiwis to give hope to the helpless when no one else will.
Newshub.
