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‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

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

Nearly 800 people have looked for sanctuary in NSW evacuation centres but their status as pop-up homes for some will cease to exist after the impact of Alfred passes.

Kim Kennedy, Vinnies’ local real estate and homelessness supervisor for northeast NSW, has actually 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 rains flooding the area.

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

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

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

She said the homeless were searching for any dry places they could sleep throughout a northern NSW area currently dealing with an alarming lack of inexpensive real estate.

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

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

The Byron Shire regional government location, 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 real estate problem in the Northern Rivers and we need solutions,” Ms Kennedy stated.

NSW Premier Chris Minns stated evacuation centres set up in schools, universities, gyms and clubs could not work as a long-lasting repair to established real estate issues in the area.

“I am fully mindful of the considerable difficulties for housing in the Northern Rivers, however evacuation centres are not long-term services … we don’t have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allowance,” he said.

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

“So I want to apologise beforehand however we need to draw an extremely clear and understood line.”

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

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

Major flood warnings were still in place for parts of the Clarence and Richmond rivers, while clean-up operations were under method in other places.

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

Residents from 17 NSW regional federal government locations who had actually lost earnings due to the storm would be eligible for federal catastrophe relief funds for approximately 13 weeks, it was announced on Monday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated the monetary assistance would be backed by mental health services for impacted locations.

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

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