The charity Emerge Aotearoa — which provides temporary housing for homeless people — alleged the eviction was due to a serious incident in which two of its staff felt unsafe when meeting the family at their Emerge-run temporary housing where they have lived for two years.
The charity referred the allegation to the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), which then banned the family’s father from emergency housing help.
The move renders the father homeless and splits the family if the eviction goes ahead, and emergency housing is needed.
The father has responded by moving out, hoping it helps his family stay housed.
His family said he felt "attacked" by the ministry and he was loved and missed.
Family friend Richard Miller said the family’s situation had become extreme.
"This vulnerable and traumatised family is being singled out by bureaucratic bullies.
"It is the most unkind decision-making, depriving seven children of a parent and threatening their housing," Mr Miller said.
Emerge had "made a cruel and calculated character assassination of the family" by "misrepresenting facts".
"My good friend has been hounded from his home in the face of baseless and unsubstantiated statements," he said.
The family speak limited English, are Syrian war survivors and were invited to live in Dunedin under the government’s refugee programme in 2018.
They are on the waiting list for a Dunedin social home and have been mostly homeless for years.
Before moving into the Emerge house, they slept in motels, rooms in a friend’s house, on an office floor and in two private rentals — one mouldy and one that became too small as their family grew.
Emerge sent an eviction letter to the family that told them to be out by today due to a serious incident at a meeting on January 12 that "significantly impacted the safety and wellbeing of two Emerge Aotearoa staff ".
The family deny this claim.
Friend Julie Howard, who was in the meeting, agreed it was "simply untrue".
Before the meeting, Emerge had sent the family a text saying the meeting was about a possible home.
However, the family said in the meeting they were given a document about Emerge’s rules — in English — and advised to view a private rental costing more than $800 a week.
The family expressed themselves in "culturally appropriate" ways, Ms Howard said.
Nothing was said or done against Emerge staff, she said.
One of the Emerge staff meetings in the meeting was the "housing navigator" exposed by the Otago Daily Times last month for trying to get the family to shift to the North Island and scam their way into a social home by pretending to be homeless there.
Emerge hand-delivered its eviction letter to the family’s post box on January 22, just two days after the housing navigator’s behaviour was revealed.
The letter mentioned the alleged incident, but did not give details of the incident, nor how to appeal the eviction, nor where the family might go.
The mother said the family were tired and wanted to stay put until they got a social home.
"We need a home, please help," the mother said.
Ms Howard said the government had failed in its promise to give the family a secure and stable future in New Zealand.
There was an opportunity to make this a good news story by finding the family a social home, she said.
The family are fighting the eviction through a dispute resolution service run by Fair Way and contracted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development that aims to mediate solutions.
The ministry also contracts Emerge’s housing.
Emerge chief executive John Cook said the January 12 incident involved "aggressive behaviour ... toward our staff who felt the need to end the meeting and exit the property as quickly as possible".
MSD regional commissioner Steph Voight confirmed MSD had decided the father of the family was not eligible for emergency housing, based on information from Emerge that he was "threatening and aggressive toward their staff".
A recording of the meeting obtained by the ODT, which several witnesses said included the final minutes, does not reveal threats and aggression towards Emerge staff.
Dunedin Muslim Association representative Zaaid Shah said there was subconscious bias against the family.
Mr Cook said the eviction had been carefully considered with a focus on safe outcomes and the notice period had been extended.
He declined to comment on the outcome of any investigation into his housing navigator’s behaviour in December.
The family said they had not received an extended notice period from Emerge.
Mr Cook said he welcomed the dispute resolution process.
Emerge is known to have agreed to holding off enforcing an eviction while a mediation process takes place.
