A woman is twisting a knife in the lock on a doorhandle. Her mission is to break into a room to get her hands on a cone, but it's not an ice-cream that she's craving. This is Struggle Street, a three-part documentary that gives blunt insight into a corner of the country dealing with high levels of drug addiction, unemployment and family dysfunction.

The documentary opens in predictable fashion, pointing to the image many have of sparkling Sydney Harbour as the gateway to the sun-bronzed Aussie lifestyle. Mount Druitt, narrator David Field explains, is also part of NSW, just not a side of life you see in tourist brochures.

There's no sign of the "lucky country" here. In an uncommon endeavour for an Australian television production, the series gives voice to Australians living on the fringes.

Some may argue that there are many well-adjusted families and individuals in Mount Druitt who could have been profiled in this first episode, but that does not dilute the impact of tragic stories told by people who have been brave in allowing a camera crew uncensored access to their lives.

A lot can be done in the editing room to shape narrative, but you trust Struggle Street is an unadulterated slice of the participants' lives.

It resonates because it tells the stories of people who have likely spent their lives feeling misunderstood. It shows what is hidden behind labels such as "dole bludger", "houso" and "druggo", and gives context to the circumstances that led people to lifestyles they feel incapable of changing.

There's 21-year-old Erin, a single mum who has taken homeless teenager Bailee under her wing, and William, an indigenous man living rough in the bush, who uses a homemade slingshot to hunt birds to eat.

Then there's Peta and husband Ashley, who have 10 children and 18 grandchildren between them. Both were employed, Peta in the catering industry and Ashley as an interstate truck driver, until illness forced them from work and onto benefits.

Physical and mental illness, disability and drug addiction have become part of their lives. They are desperately worried about the future of a son, a young dad, who "is like an animal, a raging bull", when coming off drugs.

The documentary is not all doom, however. In the telling of these stories of hardship are moments that show the best of human nature – the strength of family bonds, hope and resilience.

Struggle Street is about the social ills of Mount Druitt, but the truth is that it reflects many Australian communities that are under-resourced and bursting with people battling generational cycles of disadvantage.

Struggle Street, SBS One, Wednesday, 8.30pm