No one chooses to become homeless, Lifewise, a homeless support group in New Zealand, said. The statement comes after the Auckland Council has proposed a bylaw to ban begging on the street.

Mike Lee, left-wing Auckland councillor, is chairing the bylaw committee that is proposing to outlaw beggars on the streets of Auckland. The Council said that it receives an average of five complaints a month about begging being a "nuisance."

"Shopkeepers in particular find it frustrating to have someone camped outside their front door," Mr Lee said, adding that the council aims to ban begging from the streets within a month.

The proposal has been met with opposing views, particularly coming from welfare groups that said that it's not fair to criminalise people for being poor.

One of those groups, Lifewise, reiterated that "Homelessness is not a choice."

"People who are homeless lose choice. They have very few options and the fact that they have lost choice contributes to their homelessness," John McCarthy, general manager of the organisation, told TV One's Breakfast.

To help combat the homelessness situation, Lifewise has held their annual Big Sleepout on Thursday night to a rousing success.

Some politicians and business and community leaders have participated at the event, where they swapped the comfort of their warm bed at home for concretes and benches. For one night, they slept on the streets of Auckland University of Technology to call attention to the social problem at hand.

In return, around 100 people who participated were able to raise over $153,000, thanks to the sponsors who generously donated to the cause.

Meanwhile, the police force has backed up stricter rules for street beggars. Auckland City Police Prevention Manager Gary Davey said that the police supports stricter crackdown on beggars in some areas.

"What we do know is a lot of those homeless people - not all - are committing a lot of our property crime in the inner city so what we find is they're doing some burglaries, they are breaking into cars, stealing purses, stealing phones, that sort of thing," he told New Zealand Herald, adding that some beggars spend money on alcohol, which worsens their behaviour.

"That's where I think you need some of those bylaws to make sure you deal with that aggression and violence. And they shouldn't be intimidating members of the public whether it be in their cars for window washers or begging."