Those words were echoed by Polly Neate, the chief executive of housing charity Shelter, who told delegates that unless welfare reform and the benefits cap were reversed, the county would see "absolutely unacceptable levels of destitution".
But when it comes to social welfare the safety net is itself full of holes: the right to be free from inhuman or degrading treatment will shield you from the most desperate levels of destitution, but only by guaranteeing absolutely minimal provision.
This phenomenon has crippled the pastoral economy and increased the levels of destitution to alarmingly high levels.
The emotional impact of experiencing and bearing witness to a level of destitution many would consider unimaginable in the UK is also acknowledged.
But in this kind of experience, that deviance, the idea that gay sex had to be this secret, completely animalistic need fulfiller that completely lacked any sort of human or emotional connection whatsoever, put me in touch with a new level of destitution.
"The level of destitution among many of the families I have seen recently in the Central African Republic is shocking and yet, there is still hope to improve people's immediate and long-term prospects, if we can act on a broad enough scale to restore livelihoods and food security," said Dominique Burgeon, the Director of FAO's Emergency and Rehabilitation Division.
By 2008, the share had risen to one in five, and by 2010 it was one in four — twice the level of seeming destitution when welfare was more accessible.
Even Canada -- which has a similar economy and distribution of wealth to the United States -- has a much lower poverty rate and does not permit the level of sheer destitution and misery found in the United States, including hunger, slums and the growing army of homeless people sleeping on park benches and in vacant buildings.
