‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

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

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

Kim Kennedy, Vinnies’ local housing and homelessness manager for northeast NSW, has been on the front lines supporting individuals 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 rains inundating the area.

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

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

“It has been actually difficult trying to get them any kind of shelter.”

She said the homeless were searching for any dry locations they might sleep across a northern NSW area currently dealing with an alarming scarcity of inexpensive housing.

“We have actually been assisting a whole household oversleeping their vehicle,” Ms Kennedy stated.

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

The Byron Shire city government 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 absolutely do have a real estate issue in the Northern Rivers and we require options,” Ms Kennedy said.

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 entrenched real estate problems in the region.

“I am completely familiar with the substantial challenges for real estate in the Northern Rivers, but evacuation centres are not permanent solutions … we do not have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allowance,” he said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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