‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

Vulnerable citizens deal with a fight to discover food and somewhere dry to sleep when flood waters decline and temporary shelters shut.

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

Kim Kennedy, Vinnies’ regional real estate 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 damage to Fred’s Place, the Tweed Heads drop-in centre where she is based, with consistent rains flooding the space.

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

« It has actually been a horrendous time for the homeless neighborhood, » Ms Kennedy told AAP.

« It has actually been really tough trying to get them any kind of shelter. »

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

« We have actually been assisting a whole household sleeping in their vehicle, » Ms Kennedy stated.

« Seeing them in this horrendous weather is actually dreadful. »

The Byron Shire regional federal 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 definitely do have a housing issue in the Northern Rivers and we require solutions, » Ms Kennedy said.

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

« I am completely knowledgeable about the substantial difficulties for housing in the Northern Rivers, however evacuation centres are not irreversible services … we don’t have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allowance, » he stated.

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

« So I desire to apologise in advance but we need to draw a very clear and understood line. »

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

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

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

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

Residents from 17 NSW city government locations who had 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 monetary support would be backed by mental health services for impacted locations.