It fills her with frustration and despair.
"Walk down George St and you will see it — more people begging and sleeping on the main street," she says.
"But at the moment there is no will to deal with it."
As the head of one of a handful of local not-for-profit organisations whose missions intersect and overlap on the plight of those most vulnerable, she sees the need all too clearly.
Otago has a growing number of people falling through large cracks in emergency, low-cost and supported housing, she says.
All of those social housing options exist. But despite that, more people — because of their circumstances and a lack of suitable alternatives — are unable to ensure, as darkness falls each evening, that they have a roof over their heads.
She gives just a couple of examples.
A man who every evening retrieves his sleeping bag from an accommodation provider and spends the night sleeping rough because his drug addiction has seen him banned from the city’s backpackers and boarding houses, and he no longer qualifies for short term emergency housing.
Another person, released from psychiatric care and unable to keep paid accommodation, who has not been seen for a while and whom she presumes is now in prison — the often inevitable endpoint of unsupported life on the streets for those with mental health issues.
The nonprofit agencies see the problems — for instance, the lack of a "wet house" where those with addictions can get a safe bed — and they are talking about the need. But the resources — money, and therefore facilities and personnel — are just not there. Because the funders do not seem to see, or prioritise, the need. Which means next to nothing can be done about it.
It is why her name is withheld. As the head of an agency dependent on the continued good will of grants organisations for most of the vital work it does, she cannot afford to be seen to be biting the favour-dispensing hand.
"Power imbalance is pervasive in our sector," Le says.
"There is always asymmetry in power when one party holds resources that another party needs. This imbalance leads to all sorts of awfulness."
Le, who is based in Seattle, in the United States, was recently on his second visit to New Zealand. The first, in 2019, was as guest speaker at a Philanthropy New Zealand conference. The latest, organised by Dunedin Community Builders, Hui E! Community Aotearoa and Volunteering New Zealand, was a nationwide speaking tour spanning last month and this, which began in Dunedin and finished in Auckland.
Le’s gregarious, friendly disposition is paired with a straight-shooting, both barrels critique of the funders and the charities — but mostly the funders — that make up the not-for-profit sector.
"I point out various flaws in our sector. We have a lot of them, from our ridiculous traditional board structure; to the various time-wasting shenanigans of foundations; to the way we’ve been conditioned to appeal to the ego of rich, mostly white, donors; to how poorly paid many people are; to our propensity to intellectualise and not take action ... to our office equipment that is held together with duct tape and bungy cords ..."
It is a critique, Le says, that is offered in love.
"Although it is not always apparent, I really genuinely love our sector.
"In many ways, we are filling the gaps left behind by governments and by the rest of society. In a society taking care of its people effectively, many of us would not need to do this work, for example, food pantries, homeless shelters and so on.
"I criticise it because I see our potential and I am optimistic that we can change and improve."
In New Zealand, that sector is worth more than $12billion a year to the country’s economy.
One half is comprised of hundreds of grant-making organisations, including large community trusts, corporate foundations, estate trusts, the Lottery Grants Board, gaming trusts and individual philanthropists.
The other is made up of more than 27,000 charities, employing more than 150,000 people, seeking funds to do good in fields ranging from sports, arts, health and the environment to social services, religion, education and housing.
In Otago, each year, that includes about $4million dispersed by the Lottery Grants Board, about $8million distributed by 13 pokie grants societies to dozens of organisations and about $10million given by the Otago Community Trust to more than 350 different community groups.
From Le’s global vantage point, he sees similar problems in the US and New Zealand.
"They are very similar.
"I think some of this is probably because the United States exports a lot of our philosophies and practices to other parts of the world.
"And a lot of these ideas are not always the best ideas."
A critical concern, Le says, is how misaligned funders’ priorities can be when compared to the real need.
"Most funders are very well meaning. But the reality is that often times funders are far removed from the people who are most affected by all these societal challenges.
"Many trustees, for example, at least in the United States, are mostly wealthy, white folks. And they may not have experienced homelessness, or poverty or hunger.
Hana Halalele agrees.
The manager of the Oamaru Pacific Island Community Group — which helps Pacific people connect with social, health, education and employment services — says it would be "super helpful" for funders to " work alongside community providers and volunteer groups ... and co-design service agreements to meet the outcomes they’re trying to deliver".
Halalele says a lack of sustainable resourcing can mean community groups like her’s risk losing staff and not being able to respond to needs.
"It’s the community that misses out when we aren’t resourced to deliver the support that is needed."
Funders’ pre-occupation with grants going to end-users, and not to pay for salaries and other overheads, is another big problem.
It is a common problem that misses the point, Le says.
He likens nonprofit organisations to firefighters trying to fight fires in the community.
"And funders are like, ‘I want to make sure the money I’m giving you to help put out these fires is only being spent on the water — not the hose, only the water’.
"But you can’t be effective as a firefighter if you don’t have the hose to direct the water.
Hannah Molloy knows what he means.
Molloy is a kaitiaki (trustee) of Dunedin Community Builders, a network of organisations fostering grassroots community development.
She says Le’s comments match the experiences of many organisations the network supports.
"Anecdotally, we know many of the organisations in our network have missed out on funding, or been partially funded, for projects that they’ve developed to support and elevate their communities’ needs and aspirations," Molloy says.
Le says the competitive nature of applying for grants has produced a destructive, dog-eat-dog mentality between nonprofits.
"We have this Hunger Games that we play.
"A lot of funders and donors need to understand that they have been helping to perpetuate this sort of system where we fight, we compete, with one another.
"This is not helpful when all of our missions are related to one another. We need to be supporting one another as an ecosystem, but instead, often times, we’re out there trying to compete with one another."
It all comes down to a power imbalance, Le says.
"We nonprofits are kind of terrified of being honest with funders, because they hold the money.
"We don’t give feedback. We are not forthcoming about the challenges we’re experiencing. We’re not forthcoming about what we actually need to do this work effectively."
So, fundraisers don’t get the information they need, he says.
"And that often times is very challenging to do, given the power dynamics."
In response, grants organisations say they are already up with the play or, at worst, quickly relearning the game.
Leonie Matoe says a major review of the Lottery Grants Scheme is under way to make it more flexible and responsive.
Matoe is acting general manager of community operations for the Department of Internal Affairs, which oversees the Lottery Grants Board and its annual dispersal of more than $200million.
Otago Community Trust chief executive Barbara Bridger says her organisation, which supported Le’s visit to Dunedin, provides funding to "literally hundreds of grassroots organisations and activities every year".
The trust seeks to take a lead from the community and gives grants to support staff costs and other overheads. And it is making more changes, Bridger says.
"The trust is keenly aware of the pressures faced by groups whose focus is the support of the marginalised and vulnerable.
"Its new strategic plan has an increased focus on vulnerable communities and it looks forward to increased collaboration with, and among, the relevant sector."
The New Zealand Community Trust (NZCT) is community-led, Don Martin says.
The communications manager for New Zealand’s largest pokie grants society, which last year disbursed $42.3million through 1889 grants, says NZCT already operates at a grassroots level and does fund salaries and overheads.
"More than 80% of our grants are less than $10,000," Martin says.
But that rosy view from funders appears to be out of sync with charity organisations’ experiences.
A few hours before he left the country, Le outlined to The Weekend Mix his suggested solutions based on what he had heard from nonprofits the length of nga motu.
They amount to a call for a thorough-going reform of the way the sector operates.
Le says people ask how they can level the playing field to make it easier for marginalised communities to get much-needed resources.
His response: that is the wrong question.
"The playing field will never be levelled. It’s been created by implicit biases and hundreds of years of terrible practices in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector. That field will never be level.
"What we need is to create a new field, several new fields."
It is a change that starts with honesty, Le says.
"We’ve been trained to butter them[funders] up, which does not make for effective partnerships.
"I think for strong partnerships to occur, we need to be able to be honest with one another."
Beyond that, he suggests several practical steps.
"I would say funders need to fund more, to fund faster, to fund communities that are most likely to be most affected by systemic injustice.
"Larger nonprofits need to be thoughtful about how ... they can be better partners to smaller organisations and help them to achieve funding as well.
"And the entire sector also needs to be louder, because we are so invisible and yet we do such critical things."
Change cannot come quickly enough, one charity leader says.
She is struggling with an inequitable funding system, burdened by what it is doing to people she is meant to be helping.
She would love to call attention to that need, give specifics, agitate for funding. But the fear of a backlash means she requests her name and that of her organisation are not used.
The need is all around her, she says.
And it is much greater than the help her short term and partially funded contracts allow.
For lack of funds, she watches good, productive people struggle to make ends meet, fail to develop a sense of belonging and needlessly become seriously ill.
"It leaves me feeling quite overwhelmed," this leader admits.
"There is so much need. But without meaningful funding we are as helpless as those who need our help."
