This report is an attempt to understand the situations facing low-income children and young people, their parents and caregivers, families, whānau and communities in New Zealand.

Key findings:

1. Decades of government neglect of incomes and housing before COVID-19 hit, meaning that financial resilience and shelter were more difficult to come by when disaster struck than they may otherwise have been.
2. The disaster itself, and the lockdown required to contain it, leading to job loss and educational disruption (among other probably inevitable effects).
3. Covid-year government policies failed to ensure adequate income support for hundreds of thousands of children, and the safety and wellbeing of homeless families and young people.