‘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 people have sought refuge in NSW evacuation centres but their status as pop-up homes for some will disappear after the impact of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred passes.

Kim Kennedy, Vinnies’ local 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 damage to Fred’s Place, the Tweed Heads drop-in centre where she is based, with continuous rainfall flooding the space.

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

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

“It has actually been truly tough attempting to get them any type of shelter.”

She stated the were looking for any dry places they might sleep across a northern NSW region already dealing with an alarming shortage of affordable real estate.

“We have actually been assisting a whole family oversleeping their automobile,” Ms Kennedy said.

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

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

“We absolutely do have a housing issue in the Northern Rivers and we need services,” Ms Kennedy said.

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

“I am totally mindful of the significant obstacles for real estate in the Northern Rivers, but evacuation centres are not irreversible solutions … we do not have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allotment,” he stated.

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

“So I desire to apologise beforehand however we need to draw a very clear and understood line.”

More than 10,000 individuals were under emergency situation cautions in NSW on Monday morning, while 1800 people 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 warnings were still in location for parts of the Clarence and Richmond rivers, while clean-up operations were under way in other places.

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

Residents from 17 NSW regional government areas who had lost income 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 said the financial backing would be backed by mental health services for impacted areas.

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

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