Couple live in car with their 11 pets

Living in a car with six cats, four chihuahuas and a rabbit was never part of their plan.

Selwyn and Shirley McMillan went from a comfortable home in Whakatane to a boarding house to a tent and now their maroon Toyota Scepter is home.

It’s mid-afternoon and they are parked up off the main street in Tokoroa because they heard there was cheap housing in the South Waikato town.

The car is packed with stuff – animal cages, clothes, blankets.

Much of their desperate situation appears to stem from Selwyn’s health. The 58-year-old suffers epileptic seizures that came on in 1978 after he came off a farm bike and crashed head first into a concrete wall.

The seizures have worsened since the pair became homeless to the point where Shirley, 54, was forced to leave her job to care for him.

‘‘The seizures leave Selwyn very tired. Sometimes he has no balance at all, very shaky, but his walking frame and shower stool we’ve had to put into storage as they can’t fit in the car.’’

Being homeless has exacerbated their problems and people assuming they choose this life doesn’t help, Shirley says.

‘‘We go to bed with the dark, so around 6.30pm, and are getting up again about 6am. Your feet and legs are swollen because circulation isn’t great sleeping sitting up.

‘‘It’s starting to get a lot colder even with blankets . . . you still feel cold right down to the bone.’’

The couple live off Selwyn’s ACC benefit of $445 a week, and $130 of that goes to storage of their belongings.

They eat once every two days so there’s enough food for the animals. Yet parting with them isn’t an option, Shirley says.

‘‘The animals keep us going. Every day having to get up to feed them, every day having to take them to the toilet, getting kisses from them – they are what is keeping us alive.’’

It’s been 11 months since Shirley has had a night in a proper bed, it’s a month since they have been able to wash their clothes and they’ve nearly forgotten what it’s like to live in a house.