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‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

Vulnerable citizens deal with a fight to find food and someplace dry to sleep when flood waters recede and momentary shelters shut.

Nearly 800 individuals have sought sanctuary 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’ regional housing and homelessness supervisor for northeast NSW, has actually been on the cutting edge supporting individuals 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 consistent rainfall flooding the space.

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

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

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

She said the homeless were searching for any dry locations they could sleep throughout a northern NSW region currently handling a dire shortage of inexpensive housing.

“We’ve been assisting a whole family oversleeping their car,” Ms Kennedy stated.

“Seeing them in this horrendous weather is truly terrible.”

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

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

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

“I am completely conscious of the considerable challenges for housing in the Northern Rivers, but evacuation centres are not irreversible solutions … we don’t have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allowance,” he stated.

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

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

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

About 10,000 homes and companies were still not linked 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 in other places.

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

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

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the financial backing would be backed by psychological 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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