‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

Vulnerable locals deal with a battle to discover food and someplace dry to sleep when flood waters recede and temporary shelters shut.

Nearly 800 people have looked for haven 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’ local real estate and homelessness supervisor for northeast NSW, has actually been on the front lines supporting individuals sleeping rough in .

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 offered day, the centre serves about 130 hot meals to those in requirement however showers and laundry centers are out of commission till the flood damage is repaired.

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

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

She said the homeless were looking for any dry locations they might sleep throughout a northern NSW region already dealing with a dire scarcity of inexpensive real estate.

“We’ve been helping out a whole family sleeping in their vehicle,” Ms Kennedy said.

“Seeing them in this horrendous weather condition is actually 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 federal government street count.

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

NSW Premier Chris Minns said evacuation centres established in schools, universities, health clubs and clubs could not work as a long-term fix to entrenched real estate problems in the area.

“I am fully mindful of the significant difficulties for housing in the Northern Rivers, but evacuation centres are not long-term solutions … 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 raised, Mr Minns included.

“So I desire to apologise in advance however we need to draw a very clear and understood line.”

More than 10,000 individuals were under emergency warnings in NSW on Monday 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 cautions were still in place for parts of the Clarence and Richmond rivers, while clean-up operations were under way in other places.

In Pottsville, between Tweed Heads and Byron Bay, a whale carcass was amongst the debris that cleaned 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 qualified for federal disaster relief funds for up to 13 weeks, it was announced on Monday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated the monetary assistance would be backed by mental health services for affected locations.

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

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