"I'm feeling really blessed. What angels! Thank you, Lord!" she said.
Auckland University sociologist Dr Kellie McNeill said she paid the money after four friends responded to her Facebook posting of the Herald's story about the family yesterday
Simon Phillips, 24-year-old founder of sportswear company Fitwear, offered to pay the whole $900 of unpaid rent.
"I posted your story on Facebook, and when I woke up this morning Simon had said he would pay it," Dr McNeill said.
"So I put up that I'd split it with him, and then there were a few people who said, 'I'll chuck in $100.' One of my friends in Australia said he would throw $100 in."
After speaking to Roselyn and Housing NZ, the group paid the $900 plus this week's rent of $260 which was due yesterday.
"It just gives them a bit of a reprieve so that they can get on their feet without getting back into arrears," Dr McNeill said.
Mr Phillips, who founded Fitwear in Palmerston North when he was 19 and moved to Auckland last year, said he set aside part of Fitwear's revenue to fund gifts for worthy causes.
"I do stuff like this reasonably regularly," he said.
"I was just on Facebook and Kellie made the post, and I said that's incomprehensible - $900! I just went to Bali for a couple of weeks and spent way more than that."
Dr McNeill, who has a graduate student who did a master's thesis on state housing reforms in Glen Innes, said Housing NZ was evicting many tenants for small amounts of unpaid rent.
"The reins have certainly been tightened," she said.
"That said, I dealt with Housing NZ this morning and they were absolutely incredulous that someone would come in and pick up this debt, but the case manager who has been dealing with the family was certainly very helpful and liaised with Roselyn to make sure it was alright to share information.
"It actually didn't take a lot of sorting out, and for the sake of having six people not sleeping in a car over winter, it's not a lot of money."
