‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain
Vulnerable residents face a fight to discover food and somewhere dry to sleep when flood waters decline and short-term shelters shut.
Nearly 800 people have actually looked for sanctuary in NSW evacuation centres but their status as pop-up homes for some will stop to exist after the impact of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred passes.
Kim Kennedy, Vinnies’ regional housing and homelessness manager for northeast NSW, has been on the cutting edge 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 consistent rains inundating the space.
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 fixed.
“It has been a horrendous time for the homeless neighborhood,” Ms Kennedy informed AAP.
“It has been really tough trying to get them any type of shelter.”
She said the homeless were looking for any dry locations they could sleep throughout a northern NSW region currently dealing with an alarming shortage of budget-friendly housing.
“We have actually been assisting a whole household oversleeping their automobile,” Ms Kennedy stated.
“Seeing them in this horrendous weather condition is really dreadful.”
The Byron Shire city government area, 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 need options,” Ms Kennedy said.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said evacuation centres established in schools, universities, health clubs and clubs could not serve as a long-term repair to entrenched real estate problems in the area.
“I am fully familiar with the considerable obstacles for real estate in the Northern Rivers, but evacuation centres are not permanent solutions … we do not have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allotment,” he said.
The centres would close in all areas once local emergency situation orders were raised, Mr Minns included.
“So I want to apologise ahead of time however we have to draw a very clear and understood line.”
More than 10,000 individuals were under emergency cautions in NSW on Monday early morning, while 1800 individuals were separated by floodwaters.
About 10,000 homes and organizations were still not linked to power as heavy rain continued to fall in numerous locations.
Major flood cautions were still in location for parts of the Clarence and Richmond rivers, while clean-up operations were under way elsewhere.
In Pottsville, between Tweed Heads and Byron Bay, a whale carcass was among the debris that cleaned up after big swells battered the shoreline for days.
Residents from 17 NSW regional federal government locations who had actually lost income due to the storm would be qualified for relief funds for approximately 13 weeks, it was announced on Monday.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the monetary support would be backed by psychological 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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