‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

Vulnerable citizens face a fight to find food and somewhere dry to sleep when flood waters decline and momentary shelters shut.

Nearly 800 individuals have looked for refuge in NSW evacuation centres however their status as pop-up homes for some will disappear after the impact of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred passes.

Kim Kennedy, Vinnies’ local 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 drop-in centre where she is based, with continuous rainfall flooding 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 until the flood damage is fixed.

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

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

She stated the homeless were searching for any dry places they could sleep throughout a northern NSW region currently dealing with an alarming scarcity of budget friendly real estate.

“We have actually been assisting out a whole family 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 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 absolutely do have a real estate issue in the Northern Rivers and we need services,” Ms Kennedy said.

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

“I am completely knowledgeable about the significant difficulties for real estate in the Northern Rivers, but evacuation centres are not irreversible services … we don’t have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allotment,” he stated.

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

“So I desire 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 early morning, while 1800 people were separated by floodwaters.

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

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

In Pottsville, in between Tweed Heads and Byron Bay, a whale carcass was amongst the particles that cleaned up after big swells damaged the coastline for days.

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

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

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

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