‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

Vulnerable homeowners face a fight to discover food and someplace dry to sleep when flood waters recede and short-lived shelters shut.

Nearly 800 people have looked for refuge in NSW evacuation centres however their status as pop-up homes for some will cease to exist after the impact of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred passes.

Kim Kennedy, Vinnies’ local housing and homelessness manager for northeast NSW, has been on the cutting edge supporting individuals sleeping rough in flooded zones.

Her task was made harder on Monday due to harm to Fred’s Place, the Tweed Heads drop-in centre where she is based, with consistent rains inundating the space.

On any given day, the centre serves about 130 hot meals to those in requirement but showers and laundry facilities run out commission until the flood damage is fixed.

“It has actually been a horrendous time for the homeless community,” Ms Kennedy informed AAP.

“It has actually been truly difficult trying to get them any type of shelter.”

She said the homeless were trying to find any dry places they might sleep throughout a northern NSW region already handling a dire lack of affordable housing.

“We’ve been assisting an entire household oversleeping their car,” Ms Kennedy said.

“Seeing them in this horrendous weather condition is really awful.”

The Byron Shire regional government location, south of Tweed Heads, had the most rough sleepers of any council location in the state, according to a 2024 government street count.

“We definitely do have a housing problem in the Northern Rivers and we need solutions,” Ms Kennedy said.

NSW Premier Chris Minns stated evacuation centres set up in schools, universities, gyms and clubs might not act as a long-term repair to entrenched real estate issues in the region.

“I am completely mindful of the considerable difficulties for housing in the Northern Rivers, however evacuation centres are not long-term services … we do not have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allowance,” he said.

The centres would close in all once regional emergency orders were raised, Mr Minns added.

“So I want to apologise beforehand however we need to draw an extremely clear and understood line.”

More than 10,000 individuals were under emergency situation cautions in NSW on Monday early morning, while 1800 individuals were isolated by floodwaters.

About 10,000 homes and organizations were still not linked to power as heavy rain continued to fall in numerous locations.

Major flood warnings were still in location for parts of the Clarence and Richmond rivers, while clean-up operations were under way elsewhere.

In Pottsville, in between Tweed Heads and Byron Bay, a whale carcass was amongst the particles that cleaned up after big swells damaged the coastline for days.

Residents from 17 NSW local government locations who had actually lost earnings due to the storm would be qualified for federal catastrophe relief funds for as much as 13 weeks, it was revealed on Monday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated the financial assistance would be backed by psychological health services for affected locations.

“We’ve got your back, that’s my message to communities here,” he said from Lismore on Monday.

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