The Government has had to top up the Ministry of Social Development's budget to the tune of $3 million a year just to pay for the extra staff required to help get people into emergency motels.
It's another sign of the ever-deepening housing crisis, and the latest Newshub-Reid Research poll shows Kiwis are over it - they want house prices to fall and don't think the Government is doing enough.
The Government hopes their benefit boost in Budget 2021 will curb rampant demand for services like the Wellington City Mission, where food is free because people need it to be.
"Just making sure that New Zealand is the place that we believe it to be; fair, a place where when you need help and support, that you're able to access it," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said during a visit to Wellington City Mission on Friday.
Ministers proudly did the rounds on Friday doing breakfasts and business rounds, showing off their first proper Labour Budget, which - perhaps not surprisingly - didn't win over National.
"There's nothing for middle New Zealand," said National leader Judith Collins. "There's nothing for people who are out working every day to pay the bills and pay taxes."
Ardern sees things differently.
"I hear constantly from New Zealanders that they want to see everyone doing well and so people from all walks of life have often raised with me the issue of poverty."
Beneficiaries were the big winners of the Budget, getting up to $55 a week more, to try and lift kids out of poverty. It's not just about lack of enough food - people need homes.
The Government also had to give the Ministry of Social Development an extra $3 million a year to hire more staff to deal with emergency motel demand.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson told Newshub it's not an admission that the housing crisis is going to get worse.
"No it's not, it's an admission though, that we do have a lot of work to do."
They sure do and the public wants more action.
In the latest Newshub-Reid Research poll we asked: Is the Government doing enough to address the housing crisis? Only 27.2 percent of people said yes while a clear majority - 61.6 percent - said no.
People Newshub spoke to on the streets of Wellington described the house prices as "out of control" and "astronomical", "diabolical" and "unaffordable".
Treasury reckons runaway house prices are going to stall, forecasting a whopping 17 percent growth in prices this year, but next year predicting house prices won't even increase by 1 percent.
It doesn't quite go as far as saying prices will fall, which is actually what Kiwis want.
The Newshub-Reid Research poll also found that 73.4 percent of New Zealanders want house prices to fall while just 20.7 percent said no and the rest weren't sure.
A woman Newshub spoke to said she doesn't want that to happen because she's a homeowner, but a man said he'd "love to" see prices fall while another said "100 percent, because I want to be able to afford a house".
Politicians have been forever too terrified to say that house prices need to come down in case voters punish them in the polls.
But when nearly three quarters of Kiwis are telling you that they want house prices to fall, perhaps saying it doesn't require that much bravery.
