A protest at Civic Park in Newcastle on Sunday marked the local start of National Anti-Poverty Week.
The sit-in protest, attended by about 40 people, kicked off a series of events being held by Newcastle Poverty Action Alliance, a group of organisations and individuals who have joined forces in the fight for change.
"We wanted to really put it out there that it's time we redress this issue and stop vilifying the people that are facing structural barriers and falling into poverty," NPAA chair Kelly Hansen said.
Ms Hansen said people in poverty often felt "trapped" and the government needed to be doing more to assist them.
"No more, we need to change," she said.
"We need to start talking about this as a human right. People have a right to shelter, people have a right to a standard of living, people have a right to safety."
Newcastle federal MP Sharon Claydon spoke at the protest, calling for the federal government to implement meaningful change.
"The structural inequities in Australia have been growing over decades," she said.
"The inequality gap in Australia is now the widest its been in 80 years. That has got to be worrying for everybody.
"People who are the most marginalised and the most vulnerable are now seeing compounding affects of the lack of housing, the very low rate of new start, the apparent challenges of finding work and getting access to the sort of services and programs they need to make their lives more stable in order to be able to be in a position to get work.
"The chronic shortage of housing has been felt particularly in Newcastle. Nationally, there's an unmet need of about half a million new homes that need to be built."
