‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

Vulnerable citizens face a fight to discover food and someplace dry to sleep when flood waters decline and momentary shelters shut.

Nearly 800 individuals 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 housing and homelessness supervisor for northeast NSW, has actually been on the front lines 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 rains flooding the area.

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

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

“It has actually been really tough trying to get them any type of shelter.”

She stated the homeless were searching for any dry places they might sleep throughout a northern NSW area already handling a dire lack of inexpensive real estate.

“We have actually been helping out a whole family oversleeping their cars and truck,” Ms Kennedy stated.

“Seeing them in this horrendous weather is actually horrible.”

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

“We absolutely do have a real estate problem in the Northern Rivers and we require services,” Ms Kennedy stated.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said evacuation centres established in schools, universities, health clubs and clubs could not serve as a long-term repair to established housing problems in the area.

“I am fully knowledgeable about the significant difficulties for housing in the Northern Rivers, however evacuation centres are not permanent options … we don’t have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allotment,” he said.

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

“So I want to apologise beforehand however we have to draw a really clear and understood line.”

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

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

Major flood warnings were still in place for parts of the Clarence and Richmond rivers, while clean-up operations were under method somewhere else.

In Pottsville, between and Byron Bay, a whale carcass was among the debris that cleaned up after huge swells battered the shoreline for days.

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

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated the monetary support would be backed by psychological health services for impacted locations.

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

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