Move-on orders come into effect this weekend, but questions remain about who will be targeted and how the new law will be enforced.
From Sunday, police will have new powers to move on beggars, rough sleepers, or people acting disorderly in a public place. If they refuse or return within 24 hours, they can face up to three months' jail or a $2000 fine.
While the Government says it's about reclaiming the streets, critics say the law raises questions about how some of New Zealand's most vulnerable people are treated.
Co-founder of food bank Sunday Blessings, Danielle LeGallais, told Breakfast the law was "really unusual" and described a "cumulative effect of lack of understanding".
"The law has been extremely unclear from the outset when it first was announced on February 22, right up until now.
"It's very vague, our street whānau, and even to be honest, some of the MPs who are in support of the law still don't actually understand the provisions. They don't understand how it's going to be executed."
She said police had been handing out brochures to those on the street, but "it's been too late".
"People still don't know exactly how and how an order has to be issued, the exceptions to the order, and also the rights and duties of both the person executing the order and the person receiving it."
LeGallais' concerns were "that we don't know how this is going to play out until it does, and it's going to be at the expense of the person who experiences the trauma of being detained and having to give their details".
"By the way, detained also means you can be handcuffed before being arrested.
"Can that person read? Can that person actually comprehend what that order says? Because it's not clear-cut about how long someone can be sent away for, or how long they have to stay, or how far they actually have to go, that's confusing."
Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young said figuring out how the law will work had been "quite a truncated process". She told Breakfast her organisation and others, including police, had been working to determine the best approach.
"We're really focused on when there's disruptive, disorderly, threatening behaviour that's happening in a commercial area in front of a store."
She said the concern was not about people who were rough sleeping and begging, but on situations where there was threatening or disorderly behaviour.
Young hoped the orders were used for the right purposes, for the right individuals, saying it could be "really tricky to try and get this right".
"If anyone that calls police, we'd like to think that could be confidential and also ensure that there's a circle back so that if a business has called about some disruptive behavior and someone is asked to move from that area, that the business is then informed of how long that person is out.
"Because it's up to 24 hours. So it could be three hours, it could be eight hours, it could be 10 hours, could be 24 hours. And the only way a business will know if that's been breached is if they understand where they've been moved to, and for how long."
She said moving a person to another environment meant their behaviour wouldn't change either.
"If someone's in an agitated state or they're in a space where they may suffer from addictions or they are high or drunk, that's not going to change."
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said move-on orders did not criminalise homelessness.
"They simply provide police with an additional tool to deal with people displaying disorderly behaviour in public places. Only people who refuse those orders will face prosecution. A move-on order is not a criminal charge.
“New Zealanders are fair-minded people, and our culture is one where we seek to help those who are in need. But that doesn’t mean we should accept our city centres, particularly our showcase tourist spots, as places of intimidation and dysfunction."
He said businesses, residents and tourists were "paying the price for unprecedented levels of disruption".
"Many are just trying to make a living, but have to face people camped outside their store, day in day out."
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