'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 temporary shelters shut.

Nearly 800 people have sought haven in NSW evacuation centres however their status as pop-up homes for some will disappear after the impact of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred passes.

Kim Kennedy, Vinnies' local housing and homelessness manager 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 swamping the area.

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

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

"It has been truly tough attempting to get them any kind of shelter."

She said the homeless were looking for any dry locations they could sleep across a northern NSW region already handling a dire lack of budget friendly real estate.

"We've been assisting a whole family sleeping in their vehicle," Ms Kennedy stated.

"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 location in the state, according to a 2024 government street count.

"We absolutely do have a housing problem in the Northern Rivers and we require services," Ms Kennedy said.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said evacuation centres set up in schools, universities, health clubs and clubs might not serve as a long-lasting fix to entrenched housing problems in the area.

"I am completely conscious of the significant obstacles for real estate in the Northern Rivers, but evacuation centres are not irreversible services ... we do not have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allocation," he said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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