‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

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

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

Kim Kennedy, Vinnies’ local housing and homelessness supervisor for northeast NSW, has been on the front lines supporting people sleeping rough in flooded zones.

Her job was made harder on Monday due to harm to Fred’s Place, the Tweed Heads drop-in centre where she is based, with consistent rainfall inundating the space.

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

« It has actually been a horrendous time for the homeless neighborhood, » Ms Kennedy informed AAP.

« It has been actually difficult trying to get them any kind of shelter. »

She stated the homeless were looking for any dry locations they could sleep across a northern NSW region currently dealing with a dire lack of economical real estate.

« We’ve been assisting an entire household sleeping in their automobile, » Ms Kennedy said.

« Seeing them in this horrendous weather condition is truly terrible. »

The Byron Shire city government area, south of Tweed Heads, had the most rough sleepers 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 options, » Ms Kennedy said.

NSW Premier Chris Minns stated evacuation centres established in schools, universities, gyms and clubs could not act as a long-lasting fix to entrenched real estate problems in the area.

« I am completely familiar with the substantial challenges for housing in the Northern Rivers, however evacuation centres are not long-term options … we don’t have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allocation, » he stated.

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

« So I wish to apologise in advance however we need to draw a really clear and understood line. »

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

About 10,000 homes and companies 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 somewhere else.

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

Residents from 17 NSW city government areas who had actually lost income due to the storm would be eligible for federal disaster for up to 13 weeks, it was announced on Monday.

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

« We’ve got your back, that’s my message to neighborhoods here, » he stated from Lismore on Monday.

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