More than 200 people are braving the cold tonight in Hamilton and Napier as part of a peaceful protest to house the homeless.

The Park Up for Homes movement in Hamilton is organised by Annie Williams who will be out in the cold with her family to demonstrate their situation every night.

Williams says they hope events like this will help towards stopping the sale of state homes and the government investing a lot more money into state and not-for-profit housing.

She also wants "minimum standards for all rental housing, greater tenure for protection of tenants, and a statutory right to be housed - that's a really important one."

Williams believes homelessness is just getting worse and there needs to be an end date for it in New Zealand.

"We've come together to support those that are homeless, and to show solidarity. We aim to help and do something about this problem."

The gathering will begin the Fairfield Park car park and the Fairfield Community Centre Car Park at 5pm.

Napier Spokesman Wai Tupaea said more people are finding themselves on the streets, and the waiting list of social housing in the bay is increasing.

"It concerned me a lot that in the Hawke's Bay we lost 377 state houses in the past five years."

He's hoping to get a huge community groundswell to fight for a solution to homelessness, and fight against "nonsense housing policies."

The Park Up for Homes event in Hawke's Bay gets underway at Clive Square from 6pm.