‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

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

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

Kim Kennedy, Vinnies’ regional real estate and homelessness manager for northeast NSW, has actually been on the cutting edge supporting people 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 continuous rainfall inundating the area.

On any provided day, the centre serves about 130 hot meals to those in need however showers and laundry centers run out commission till the flood damage is fixed.

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

“It has been really challenging attempting to get them any type of shelter.”

She said the homeless were looking for any dry locations they could sleep across a northern NSW area currently handling a dire shortage of budget-friendly real estate.

“We have actually been assisting out a whole household sleeping in their automobile,” Ms Kennedy stated.

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

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 absolutely do have a real estate problem in the Northern Rivers and we require solutions,” Ms Kennedy stated.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said evacuation centres established in schools, universities, gyms and clubs could not act as a long-term repair to established housing issues in the region.

“I am totally knowledgeable about the substantial challenges for housing in the Northern Rivers, but evacuation centres are not long-term solutions … we do not have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allowance,” he said.

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

“So I wish to apologise beforehand but we have to draw an extremely clear and understood line.”

More than 10,000 people were under emergency cautions in NSW on Monday early morning, while 1800 people were separated 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 place for parts of the Clarence and Richmond rivers, while clean-up operations were under way somewhere else.

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

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

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the monetary support would be backed by mental health services for impacted locations.

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

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