‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

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

Nearly 800 individuals have sought refuge in NSW evacuation centres but their status as pop-up homes for some will stop to exist 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 front lines 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 consistent rains inundating the area.

On any provided day, the centre serves about 130 hot meals to those in requirement but 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 told AAP.

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

She said the homeless were searching for any dry places they could sleep throughout a northern NSW region currently handling a dire scarcity of economical real estate.

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

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

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 federal government street count.

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

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

“I am fully knowledgeable about the significant challenges for real estate 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 areas once orders were lifted, Mr Minns added.

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

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

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

Major flood cautions were still in place for parts of the Clarence and Richmond rivers, while clean-up operations were under way somewhere else.

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

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

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

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

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