‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

Vulnerable citizens deal with a fight to discover food and someplace dry to sleep when flood waters decline and short-term shelters shut.

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

Kim Kennedy, Vinnies’ regional real estate and homelessness supervisor for northeast NSW, has been on the front lines supporting individuals 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 continuous rainfall swamping the area.

On any provided day, the centre serves about 130 hot meals to those in need but showers and laundry centers are out of commission up until the flood damage is fixed.

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

“It has actually been really tough trying to get them any type of shelter.”

She said the homeless were attempting to find any dry locations they might sleep throughout a northern NSW region currently handling a dire shortage of budget-friendly housing.

“We’ve been helping out an entire household oversleeping their cars and truck,” Ms Kennedy stated.

“Seeing them in this horrendous weather condition is really awful.”

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 absolutely do have a real estate issue in the Northern Rivers and we need services,” Ms Kennedy said.

NSW Premier Chris Minns stated centres established in schools, universities, health clubs and clubs could not act as a long-lasting fix to entrenched housing problems in the area.

“I am fully conscious of the considerable challenges for housing in the Northern Rivers, however evacuation centres are not long-term options … we do not have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allotment,” he stated.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Residents from 17 NSW city government areas who had lost earnings due to the storm would be qualified for federal disaster relief funds for approximately 13 weeks, it was announced on Monday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated the financial backing would be backed by psychological health services for impacted locations.

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

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