‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

Vulnerable locals face a fight to find food and somewhere dry to sleep when flood waters recede and short-term shelters shut.

Nearly 800 individuals have actually sought refuge 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 manager for northeast NSW, has actually been on the cutting edge supporting people sleeping rough in flooded zones.

Her task was made harder on Monday due to harm to Fred’s Place, the Tweed Heads drop-in centre where she is based, with constant rainfall swamping the area.

On any provided day, the centre serves about 130 hot meals to those in need but 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 stated the homeless were trying to discover any dry locations they could sleep across a northern NSW area currently dealing with an alarming shortage of affordable housing.

“We have actually been assisting out a whole family oversleeping their vehicle,” Ms Kennedy said.

“Seeing them in this horrendous weather is truly terrible.”

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

“We definitely do have a real estate issue in the Northern Rivers and we require solutions,” Ms Kennedy said.

NSW Premier Chris Minns stated evacuation centres established in schools, universities, fitness centers and clubs could not work as a long-lasting fix to established housing problems in the region.

“I am fully knowledgeable about the considerable challenges for real estate in the Northern Rivers, however evacuation centres are not irreversible options … we do not have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allowance,” he said.

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

“So I wish to apologise in advance but we have to draw a very clear and understood line.”

More than 10,000 people were under emergency warnings in NSW on Monday early morning, while 1800 people were isolated by floodwaters.

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

Major flood cautions were still in location 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 substantial swells battered the coastline for days.

Residents from 17 NSW city government areas who had lost income due to the storm would be eligible for federal catastrophe relief funds for as much as 13 weeks, it was announced on Monday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the financial support would be backed by psychological health services for affected areas.

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

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