‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

face a battle to find food and someplace dry to sleep when flood waters recede and temporary shelters shut.

Nearly 800 people have sought 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 manager for northeast NSW, has actually been on the cutting edge 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 continuous rains inundating the space.

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

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

« It has been truly tough trying to get them any type of shelter. »

She said the homeless were searching for any dry locations they could sleep across a northern NSW region already handling an alarming lack of affordable real estate.

« We’ve been helping out a whole family sleeping in their automobile, » Ms Kennedy said.

« Seeing them in this horrendous weather condition 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 definitely do have a housing problem 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 might not act as a long-lasting repair to entrenched real estate issues in the region.

« I am fully familiar with the considerable difficulties for real estate 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 said.

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

« So I desire 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 morning, while 1800 people were separated by floodwaters.

About 10,000 homes and businesses were still not linked 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 in other places.

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

Residents from 17 NSW city government areas who had actually lost earnings 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 stated the financial assistance would be backed by mental health services for impacted locations.

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

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