‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

Vulnerable homeowners face a fight to discover food and someplace dry to sleep when flood waters decline and momentary shelters shut.

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

Kim Kennedy, Vinnies’ regional and homelessness manager for northeast NSW, has been on the front lines supporting people sleeping rough in flooded zones.

Her task was made harder on Monday due to damage to Fred’s Place, the Tweed Heads drop-in centre where she is based, with continuous rainfall swamping the space.

On any offered 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 been a horrendous time for the homeless community,” Ms Kennedy told AAP.

“It has been actually challenging attempting to get them any kind of shelter.”

She said the homeless were searching for any dry places they might sleep across a northern NSW area already dealing with an alarming scarcity of economical real estate.

“We have actually been assisting a whole household oversleeping their vehicle,” Ms Kennedy said.

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

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

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

NSW Premier Chris Minns stated evacuation centres established in schools, universities, health clubs and clubs might not act as a long-term fix to established real estate problems in the region.

“I am totally mindful of the considerable challenges for real estate in the Northern Rivers, but evacuation centres are not long-term solutions … we don’t have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allotment,” he stated.

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

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

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

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

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 big swells battered the shoreline for days.

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

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

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

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