'Horrendous': Shelter Closures Pour On Housing Pain

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

Nearly 800 people have actually looked for haven in NSW evacuation centres but their status as pop-up homes 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 individuals 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 continuous rainfall flooding 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 till the flood damage is repaired.

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

"It has been actually tough trying to get them any type of shelter."

She said the homeless were looking for any dry locations they could sleep throughout a northern NSW area already handling a dire lack of budget friendly housing.

"We've been assisting an entire household oversleeping their car," Ms Kennedy said.

"Seeing them in this horrendous weather condition is actually awful."

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 housing issue in the Northern Rivers and we need options," Ms Kennedy stated.

NSW Premier Chris Minns stated evacuation centres set up in schools, universities, health clubs and clubs could not act as a long-lasting repair to entrenched real estate issues in the region.

"I am completely familiar with the substantial difficulties for housing in the Northern Rivers, but evacuation centres are not long-term solutions ... we do not have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allotment," he said.

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

"So I wish to apologise ahead of time however we have to draw a very clear and understood line."

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

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

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

In Pottsville, between Tweed Heads and Byron Bay, a whale carcass was amongst the debris that cleaned up after substantial swells damaged the shoreline for days.

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