Eviction day tomorrow ... Family of eight with nowhere to live hopes for stay of execution

Cayla and Conway Tait-Henare anxiously await word if they have a place to live after tomorrow. Photo / Bevan Conley

A Whanganui family is hoping not to be forced out of their four-bedroom rented villa in Aramoho tomorrow.

Cayla and Conway Tait-Henara say they're scared and desperate because they have tried so hard to find another property to rent but are convinced they are being turned away because they have six children.

"People don't want to know us. They think our six kids will be too much. Our kids do play outside, and they do yell and laugh like all kids, but we are a good family," Cayla said.

However, their property manager, Andrew Rennie of Whanganui Property Brokers, said the Australian investor who has bought the old villa may allow them to stay an extra two weeks before the builders move in to renovate the house.

"They are the kind of tenants you want to stay on permanently," he said.

He is trying to find a property large enough for them, but at present there are no four-bedroom houses available, he said.

The couple have four children of their own aged eight, five, four and one. .They also have two extended family living with them aged 14 and 11.

"No one else in the family wanted them, and I didn't want to see them go into foster care. They couldn't stay with my father because he works full-time driving trucks. I didn't want to see them go wrong. My three brothers have all gone off the rails and are in and out of jail. I want my sisters to have a good life."

Adding to their difficulties, Conway, who is a shearer, had to stop working when their youngest child was born last year after Cayla had a difficult birth then suffered crippling post-natal depression and was bedridden for three months.

It had been an ongoing, huge embarrassment going into letting agencies over the past few months, they said.

"They (Letting agency staff) looked down on us, probably because we're not dressed in the best of clothes. And I lost my phone so couldn't give phone numbers of people who would give us a reference. You could see they didn't want to know us, and especially not with six kids," Cayla said.

Rennie said he would continue to do his very best for the couple.

"I wish all tenants were as good as they are; I really do."