'Horrendous': Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

deal with a battle to discover food and someplace dry to sleep when flood waters recede and short-lived shelters shut.

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

Kim Kennedy, Vinnies' regional housing and homelessness supervisor for northeast NSW, has 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 rains inundating the area.

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

"It has been a horrendous time for the homeless community," Ms Kennedy informed AAP.

"It has been truly difficult attempting to get them any type of shelter."

She stated the homeless were searching for any dry places they might sleep across a northern NSW area currently dealing with a dire scarcity of budget-friendly housing.

"We have actually been assisting an entire household sleeping in their cars and truck," Ms Kennedy stated.

"Seeing them in this horrendous weather condition is really horrible."

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

"We definitely do have a housing problem in the Northern Rivers and we need services," Ms Kennedy stated.

NSW Premier Chris Minns stated evacuation centres established in schools, universities, fitness centers and clubs might not act as a long-term repair to established real estate issues in the region.

"I am completely knowledgeable about the significant obstacles for real estate in the Northern Rivers, but evacuation centres are not permanent solutions ... we don't have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allowance," he stated.

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

"So I desire to apologise beforehand but we need to draw an extremely clear and understood line."

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

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

Major flood cautions were still in location 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 amongst the debris that cleaned up after big swells battered the coastline for days.

Residents from 17 NSW local government locations who had actually lost earnings due to the storm would be eligible for federal disaster relief funds for as much as 13 weeks, it was revealed on Monday.

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

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

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