KEY POINTS:
Tenants of an Auckland state house accused of terrorising neighbours on their street have won a reprieve from eviction because a member of the family is reportedly ill.
The family of six were ordered to leave the Range View Rd, Owairaka by midnight last night after a Tenancy
Tribunal hearing found serious breaches of their agreement with Housing New Zealand Corporation.
But Housing NZ communications director Quentin Doig said today the family were still at the house and no further action would be taken to evict them until next week.
"The mother is allegedly ill and so we are very mindful of that."
The Housing NZ tenants of the house the Owairaka street had earlier said they would not leave their home despite being evicted, their lawyer says.
The Tenancy Tribunal ruling ordering the family to leave followed statements from police and frequent complaints from neighbours, including acts of violence, intimidation, burglary, drunken and disorderly behaviour and theft committed by family members against the locals.
It is understood some are known to police with court appearances pending and have affiliations to the street gang DMS (Dope, Money, Sex).
But lawyer John Foliaki has applied to the Auckland District Court for a rehearing, saying despite the eviction notice, which terminated the family's tenancy at midnight last night, they would not be moving out.
"They've got nowhere to go ... Housing New Zealand have said they are not going to provide accommodation for them but where are they going to go?"
Mr Foliaki said the mother, a beneficiary with nine boys and a girl, was too sick to attend Thursday's tribunal hearing due to a "stress-related disorder".
He said the problems were likely due to two older sons who were no longer living at the home, conceding the pair "may very well be involved with gangs".
But it was unfair to call the property a "gang pad" and the family had been unjustly targeted by the police.
"In the last two weeks, I have never seen harassment by the police at this level," said Mr Foliaki.
"Yesterday, they had the street blocked off and had a helicopter above the house."
Neighbours, however, told a different story. One woman, who was shaking and did not want to be named because "it really is too dangerous for me to say anything", said the family's eviction was the end of "12 years of hell".
Another neighbour, "Frances", who has lived on a neighbouring property for the past 27 years, had mixed feelings about the family leaving, having seen the children grow up. She said the problems had been passed from one child to the next.
"This place was never like a gang street before and I hate it now that everyone thinks that way about this place because of those idiots."
"Fala", a 30-year-old timber worker who no longer lives at Range View Rd but comes back regularly to visit his family, said the young men involved with the gang had brought shame upon themselves.
"It's just a disgrace for the family ... I remember seeing them all when they were little babies," he said.
"But now they pick on the weak and it's bloody stupid.
"They're just dumb, stupid kids and I'm glad they're going."
Police had warned residents of Range View Rd to stay inside at night and not to walk along because of the gang of youths living in the house.
