‘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 temporary shelters shut.
Nearly 800 individuals have sought haven in NSW evacuation centres but their status as pop-up homes for some will cease to exist 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 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 facilities are out of commission till the flood damage is fixed.
“It has actually been a horrendous time for the homeless community,” Ms Kennedy informed AAP.
“It has actually been really challenging attempting to get them any type of shelter.”
She said the homeless were attempting to find any dry places they could sleep across a northern NSW area already dealing with a dire scarcity of affordable real estate.
“We have actually been helping out an entire family oversleeping their cars and truck,” Ms Kennedy stated.
“Seeing them in this horrendous weather is actually horrible.”
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 government street count.
“We definitely do have a housing issue in the Northern Rivers and we require options,” Ms Kennedy said.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said evacuation centres established in schools, universities, gyms and clubs could not serve as a long-term repair to entrenched housing issues in the region.
“I am completely aware of the significant challenges for housing in the Northern Rivers, however evacuation centres are not long-term services … we do not have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allowance,” he said.
The centres would close in all locations once local emergency orders were raised, Mr Minns included.
“So I want to apologise beforehand however we need to draw a really 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 connected to power as heavy rain continued to fall in numerous locations.
Major flood warnings were still in place 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 particles that washed up after huge swells battered the shoreline for days.
Residents from 17 NSW local government areas who had actually lost earnings due to the storm would be qualified for federal disaster relief funds for as much as 13 weeks, it was revealed on Monday.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the monetary support would be backed by services for impacted areas.
“We’ve got your back, that’s my message to neighborhoods here,” he said from Lismore on Monday.
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