‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

Vulnerable locals deal with a battle to find food and someplace dry to sleep when flood waters decline and temporary shelters shut.

Nearly 800 people have sought sanctuary in NSW evacuation centres but their status as pop-up homes for some will cease to exist after the effect of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred passes.

Kim Kennedy, Vinnies’ local housing and homelessness manager for northeast NSW, has actually been on the front lines supporting individuals 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 inundating the space.

On any offered day, the centre serves about 130 hot meals to those in requirement but showers and laundry centers run out commission up until the flood damage is repaired.

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

“It has actually been really difficult attempting to get them any kind of shelter.”

She said the homeless were searching for any dry locations they might sleep across a northern NSW region already dealing with an alarming lack of budget-friendly real estate.

“We have actually been helping out a whole household sleeping in their vehicle,” Ms Kennedy said.

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

The Byron Shire regional 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 issue in the Northern Rivers and we require solutions,” Ms Kennedy stated.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said evacuation centres set up in schools, universities, gyms and clubs might not serve as a long-term repair to established real estate problems in the area.

“I am totally familiar with the substantial challenges for housing in the Northern Rivers, however evacuation centres are not permanent services … we do not have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allotment,” he stated.

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

“So I want to apologise ahead of time but we have to draw a really clear and understood line.”

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

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

Major flood warnings were still in location 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 among the debris that cleaned up after substantial swells damaged the coastline for days.

Residents from 17 government areas who had lost earnings due to the storm would be qualified for federal disaster relief funds for up to 13 weeks, it was revealed on Monday.

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

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

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