‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

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

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

Kim Kennedy, Vinnies’ local real estate and homelessness manager for northeast NSW, has been on the front lines supporting people 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 constant rains flooding the space.

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

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

“It has actually been truly difficult trying to get them any kind of shelter.”

She said the homeless were looking for any dry places they could sleep across a northern NSW region already handling a dire scarcity of budget friendly real estate.

“We’ve been assisting an entire household oversleeping their vehicle,” Ms Kennedy stated.

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

The Byron Shire regional 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 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 established in schools, universities, fitness centers and clubs could not serve as a long-term repair to entrenched real estate problems in the region.

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

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

“So I wish to apologise in advance however we have to draw an extremely clear and understood line.”

More than 10,000 individuals were under emergency situation warnings in NSW on Monday 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 numerous areas.

Major flood warnings were still in place 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 debris that up after big swells battered the shoreline for days.

Residents from 17 NSW local government locations who had actually lost earnings 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 backing would be backed by psychological health services for affected areas.

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

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