‘Horrendous’: Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

Vulnerable citizens face a battle to find food and somewhere dry to sleep when flood waters decline and momentary shelters shut.

Nearly 800 people have looked for sanctuary in NSW evacuation centres but their status as for some will stop to exist after the impact of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred passes.

Kim Kennedy, Vinnies’ local housing and homelessness manager 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 damage to Fred’s Place, the Tweed Heads drop-in centre where she is based, with constant rains inundating the space.

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

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

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

She said the homeless were searching for any dry locations they might sleep throughout a northern NSW area already dealing with a dire lack of economical housing.

“We’ve been assisting a whole household sleeping in their cars and truck,” Ms Kennedy said.

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

The Byron Shire regional federal government location, 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 absolutely do have a real estate issue in the Northern Rivers and we need services,” Ms Kennedy stated.

NSW Premier Chris Minns stated evacuation centres set up in schools, universities, gyms and clubs might not work as a long-lasting repair to entrenched real estate problems in the region.

“I am completely knowledgeable about the substantial obstacles for real estate in the Northern Rivers, however evacuation centres are not permanent services … 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 raised, Mr Minns included.

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

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

About 10,000 homes and services were still not connected to power as heavy rain continued to fall in lots of areas.

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

In Pottsville, between Tweed Heads and Byron Bay, a whale carcass was amongst the debris that washed up after huge 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 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 neighborhoods here,” he said from Lismore on Monday.

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