‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

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

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

Kim Kennedy, Vinnies’ local housing and homelessness manager 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 consistent rainfall swamping the area.

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

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

“It has actually been truly difficult attempting to get them any type of shelter.”

She said the homeless were searching for any dry places they might sleep throughout a northern NSW area already dealing with an alarming lack of economical housing.

“We have actually been assisting out an entire household 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 federal government street count.

“We absolutely do have a real estate issue in the Northern Rivers and we require services,” Ms Kennedy stated.

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

“I am totally knowledgeable about the significant difficulties for housing in the Northern Rivers, but evacuation centres are not long-term options … we don’t have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allowance,” he stated.

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

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

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

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

Major flood warnings 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 among the debris that washed up after huge swells battered the shoreline for days.

Residents from 17 NSW city government locations who had lost earnings due to the storm would be eligible for federal disaster relief funds for as much as 13 weeks, it was revealed on Monday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the monetary support 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.

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