‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

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

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

Kim Kennedy, Vinnies’ regional housing and homelessness supervisor for northeast NSW, has actually been on the front lines 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 constant rains inundating the area.

On any offered day, the centre serves about 130 hot meals to those in need however showers and laundry centers run out commission up until the flood damage is repaired.

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

“It has actually been actually challenging attempting to get them any kind of shelter.”

She said the homeless were looking for any dry locations they might sleep across a northern NSW area already dealing with an alarming scarcity of cost effective housing.

“We have actually been assisting an entire household oversleeping their cars and truck,” Ms Kennedy said.

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

The Byron Shire city area, 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 real estate issue in the Northern Rivers and we need options,” Ms Kennedy said.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said evacuation centres set up in schools, universities, fitness centers and clubs could not function as a long-lasting repair to established housing problems in the area.

“I am fully knowledgeable about the considerable obstacles for housing in the Northern Rivers, but evacuation centres are not long-term solutions … we don’t have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allowance,” he said.

The centres would close in all locations once regional emergency situation orders were lifted, Mr Minns included.

“So I want to apologise in advance however we need to draw a really clear and understood line.”

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

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

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

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

Residents from 17 NSW city government locations who had lost income due to the storm would be eligible for federal catastrophe relief funds for as much as 13 weeks, it was announced on Monday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the financial backing would be backed by mental health services for affected areas.

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

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