‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

face a fight to discover food and someplace dry to sleep when flood waters recede and temporary shelters shut.

Nearly 800 people have sought sanctuary in NSW evacuation centres but their status as pop-up homes for some will disappear 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 individuals 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 area.

On any provided day, the centre serves about 130 hot meals to those in requirement but showers and laundry facilities run out commission till the flood damage is repaired.

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

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

She said the homeless were trying to find any dry places they could sleep throughout a northern NSW region currently dealing with a dire scarcity of inexpensive real estate.

“We’ve been assisting a whole household sleeping in their cars and truck,” Ms Kennedy said.

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

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

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

NSW Premier Chris Minns said evacuation centres set up in schools, universities, health clubs and clubs could not serve as a long-term repair to established housing issues in the area.

“I am fully knowledgeable about the considerable difficulties for housing in the Northern Rivers, but evacuation centres are not permanent solutions … we don’t have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allocation,” he stated.

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

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

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

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

Major flood cautions were still in place for parts of the Clarence and Richmond rivers, while clean-up operations were under method in other places.

In Pottsville, in between Tweed Heads and Byron Bay, a whale carcass was amongst the debris that washed up after big swells battered the shoreline for days.

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

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

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

Lifeline 13 11 14

beyondblue 1300 22 4636