Facebook

‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

Vulnerable locals deal with a fight to discover food and somewhere dry to sleep when flood waters recede and temporary shelters shut.

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

Kim Kennedy, Vinnies’ local housing and homelessness supervisor for northeast NSW, has been on the front lines supporting people sleeping rough in flooded zones.

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

On any provided day, the centre serves about 130 hot meals to those in requirement however showers and laundry facilities are out of commission until the flood damage is fixed.

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

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

She said the homeless were trying to discover any dry locations they might sleep across a northern NSW area already dealing with a dire lack of cost effective real estate.

“We’ve been assisting an entire family sleeping in their vehicle,” Ms Kennedy stated.

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

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

“We definitely do have a real estate problem in the Northern Rivers and we require services,” Ms Kennedy said.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said evacuation centres established in schools, universities, gyms and clubs might not serve as a long-lasting repair to established housing problems in the area.

“I am totally mindful of the significant difficulties for real estate in the Northern Rivers, however evacuation centres are not long-term solutions … we don’t have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allotment,” he stated.

The centres would close in all areas once local emergency orders were raised, Mr Minns included.

“So I want to apologise in advance however we have to draw an extremely clear and understood line.”

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

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

Major flood cautions were still in location 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 big swells battered the shoreline for days.

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

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the monetary assistance would be backed by psychological health services for impacted areas.

“We have actually got your back, that’s my message to neighborhoods here,” he stated from Lismore on Monday.

Lifeline 13 11 14

beyondblue 1300 22 4636