Will's Word: Empty shops, people sleeping on streets. Is this NZ's future?

I have a friend staying with me at the moment. They recently moved from Wellington to the Auckland CBD, where I live.

Over the weekend, we took a few walks up and down Queen Street. Just getting them used to city life.

They hadn't been in the city centre for years, so everything felt new to them, and two things immediately stood out.

One was the number of empty shops. Signs in the windows. Whole stretches of Queen Street feel hollow.

The second was the number of people living rough. Sleeping in doorways. Right alongside some of the most expensive retail brands in the country.

What struck me was how quickly I brushed past it all. Not because it is not confronting. But because I have become used to it.

That desensitisation should worry us.

Because behind every closed shop is a business that did not make it. And behind every person sleeping on the street is a system that has failed to catch them.

Dare I say this is the result of years of economic pressure, rising prices, and a city that has become harder to survive in unless you are already doing well.

Listen to Will's Word below.

So the question is not whether Queen Street looks different. It is why we have allowed it to.

This is an election year. Politicians will make their pledges and promises all the usual tactics deployed to try and get you to vote for them.

But how do we live in a country where people sleep outside luxury stores, and empty shops line our main street?

Is this the best we can do, and are we about to vote for more of the same?

That's Will's Word.