‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

Vulnerable locals face a fight to find food and someplace dry to sleep when flood waters decline and temporary shelters shut.

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

Kim Kennedy, Vinnies’ local housing and homelessness supervisor for northeast NSW, has been on the front lines supporting people 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 continuous rains flooding the space.

On any given day, the about 130 hot meals to those in need however showers and laundry facilities run out commission till the flood damage is fixed.

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

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

She said the homeless were looking for any dry places they could sleep across a northern NSW area currently handling a dire lack of inexpensive housing.

“We have actually been helping out a whole household sleeping in their automobile,” Ms Kennedy said.

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

The Byron Shire local 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 problem in the Northern Rivers and we require solutions,” Ms Kennedy said.

NSW Premier Chris Minns stated evacuation centres set up in schools, universities, gyms and clubs might not serve as a long-term repair to entrenched housing issues in the area.

“I am fully knowledgeable about the substantial obstacles for housing in the Northern Rivers, but evacuation centres are not permanent services … we do not have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allotment,” he stated.

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

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

More than 10,000 people were under emergency warnings in NSW on Monday early 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 lots of areas.

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

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

Residents from 17 NSW city government areas who had actually lost earnings 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 mental health services for affected areas.

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

Lifeline 13 11 14

beyondblue 1300 22 4636