The Promise vs The Reality of post-flood housing for homeless victims of the Northern Rivers climate change-induced 2022 unnatural disaster

 

THE PROMISE

NSW Government, website excerpt retrieved 28 December 2022:

Northern Rivers temporary housing sites

Temporary housing sites will host groups of temporary modular homes (also called pods) and caravans. The sites will include supporting infrastructure and amenities. They will vary in size, depending on the land and available amenities.

The temporary homes are stand-alone accommodation units that range from studios to 3-bedroom units. Some temporary homes will have their own internal facilities. Some sites will have communal bathrooms and kitchen facilities.

Temporary homes are rent-free for up to 2 years. Power and water costs are also included during that time. Residents are responsible for their own internet costs. For caravan residents, there may be some costs for waste management. The community housing provider will discuss any ongoing costs with residents.

How long will the temporary homes be available?

The temporary housing sites will be available for up to 3 years. The time will depend on what is needed by the community. Residents can live in the pods while they find and settle back into long-term housing. This will allow time for rebuilding homes, moving, or finding a rental property.

THE REALITY

The Daily Telegraph, 27 December 2022, p.6:

Flood victims are calling for urgent help after many spent Christmas sleeping in their cars or under their houses while emergency housing pods built specifically for them stand empty on the side of the road.

The Daily Telegraph found 10 empty purpose-built pods on the roadside just four kilometres from the centre of Lismore where Julia Melvin is still living in her car under her flood-damaged home.

Ten months after the catastrophic floods there are still officially 765 people in emergency accommodation – not counting those staying with friends or family or in their cars – and four of 11 pod housing sites still under construction.

Frustrated residents believe the $350 million spent on temporary housing, including unused pods by the now decommissioned Resilience NSW, could instead have been used to help fix the shortage of 18,600 homes across the Northern Rivers.

Ms Melvin, 62, is sleeping in her car underneath her home near the river in Lismore with her dog Bella after being rescued from the house in a tinny last February.

“I cannot live in the house so I have to sleep in the car,” the graphic designer said through tears. “Talking about it is still pretty tough.” Ms Melvin would like to move her entire house to a new location but while she battles to do so she could have been living in an emergency pod.

“I haven’t been offered anything,” she said.” It’s been inertia, totally shambolic.” The emergency housing pods, costing up to $170,000 each, were meant to be a quick fix to provide flood victims with temporary housing. But the rollout has been slow with local residents opposing their construction on ovals and public land.

A site with 52 self-contained pods that can house 200 people only opened on land at Southern Cross University in Lismore last month – nine months after the floods hit. There are other sites at Coraki, Evans Head, Kingscliff, Pottsville, Wardell and Wollongbar. Four more are under construction.

Lismore state Labor MP Janelle Saffin, who is still working out of a temporary office because hers was damaged in the floods, said rather than leaving 10 pods empty on the side of the road it would have been better to put them on private land so people could use them.

“It could have been managed better. No one knows what is being spent. It is awful and heartbreaking,” she said.

“They have said people will be in the pods for a couple of years. It might have been better to do modular homes in the beginning and let people buy them in the future.” NDIS worker Gray Wilson and partner Lisa Walmsley were due to move into their new home in Brewster St the day after the floods hit. They desperately want one of the pod homes.

“I was waiting for someone to contact me but I never heard back,” Mr Wilson said.

A NSW government spokeswoman confirmed there were 765 people in emergency accommodation in northern NSW, including in motorhomes and motels, despite $350m being spent on “medium-term accommodation”.

“The rollout of this housing program has faced challenges, particularly the persistent wet weather which has hampered construction,” she said.

The spokeswoman said 546 temporary housing units across 11 sites would eventually have the capacity to house more than 1800 people.

On 25 December 2022 SQM Research recorded a total of 110 rental listings for the Lismore City postcode of 2480, which includes East, West, North and South Lismore, Goonellabah and Girards Hill . Only three of these properties were long-term rental, the majority (92 dwellings) being rented out for periods under 30 days.

Property investors are reportedly buying up flood damaged dwellings on the market at bargain prices with the aim of renovating and placing these properties on the financially favourable rental market.

Tweets of the Week

Witness from the Rural Doctors’ Association of NSW tells the Inquiry how some cancer patients in the Northern Rivers are going home after having chemotherapy to a tent. In the rain.

They’re still homeless 7 months after the floods.

This is our national shame.#nswpol #auspol

— Cate Faehrmann 🌏🐨 (@greencate) October 5, 2022

Pandemic leaving locals without affordable housing in Northern NSW as more seachangers & treechangers leave cities for good

 

The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 July 2022:

Some tenants in regional NSW are facing displacement and homelessness due to rents spiking 30 per cent since the start of the pandemic.

The majority of council areas outside Sydney posted double-digit percentage point increases in median rents in the past 12 months to June, the latest Domain Rent Report, released on Thursday, showed.

Some tenants in regional NSW are facing displacement and homelessness due to rents spiking 30 per cent since the start of the pandemic.

The majority of council areas outside Sydney posted double-digit percentage point increases in median rents in the past 12 months to June, the latest Domain Rent Report, released on Thursday, showed.

It has left local tenants priced out of their rental markets, forcing some to leave their home towns as their budgets are eaten up by falling wages in real terms and a rising cost of living.

Domain chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell said the record growth in rents was driven by a strong sales market during the pandemic as city buyers took homes off the rental market and moved into them to live.

“The supply of rental properties, but also the new supply pipeline of housing, hasn’t been able to keep pace with the change in demand,” she said.

“We’ll see more people fall into rental stress. It does make lower-income households extremely vulnerable.”

KPMG demographer and urban economist Terry Rawnsley also said skyrocketing regional rents were a hangover of the pandemic.

He said tenants with city incomes have pushed up rents rapidly and have snapped up the historically low levels of rental supply in the regions….. 

Domain June 2022 Rental Report, excerpts:

What's happened to house and unit rents in your capital city?

Regional NSW

Houses	Jun-22	Jun-21	Jun-17	YoY	5-Yr
Albury	$420	$365	$300	+15.1%	+40.0%
Armidale Regional	$420	$370	$330	+13.5%	+27.3%
Ballina	$700	$620	$485	+12.9%	+44.3%
Bathurst Regional	$440	$400	$330	+10.0%	+33.3%
Bega Valley	$530	$460	$360	+15.2%	+47.2%
Bellingen	$525	$520	$375	+1.0%	+40.0%
Broken Hill	$313	$270	$235	+15.7%	+33.0%
Byron	$950	$900	$650	+5.6%	+46.2%
Cessnock	$480	$400	$340	+20.0%	+41.2%
Clarence Valley	$485	$450	$370	+7.8%	+31.1%

Source: Domain

 

Suburbs/Towns NSW

Units	Jun-22	YoY	5-Yr
Abbotsford	$580	+6.4%	-3.3%
Aberglasslyn	$450
Adamstown	$420	+13.5%	+40.0%
Albury	$300	+11.1%	+39.5%
Alexandria	$565	+8.7%	-5.0%
Allawah	$420	0.0%	-8.7%
Alstonville	$445	+8.5%	+43.5%
Annandale	$440	+4.8%	-8.3%
Armidale	$275	+5.8%	+19.6%
Arncliffe	$500	0.0%	-9.1%

Source: Domain

 

Affordable housing remains an issue in New South Wales and the Northern Rivers region

This was the situation in 2020 in the NSW Northern Rivers region......

House of Representatives, Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs, Inquiry into homelessness in Australia: June 2020, Social Futures -Submission 141

Northern NSW suffers from chronic homelessness issues. Like many regional communities, it is characterised by relatively low incomes, lack of employment opportunities, high welfare dependency, significant pockets of social disadvantage, limited stocks of affordable housing (especially in the coastal areas) and a lack of regular public transport. The Northern NSW region has an above average Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population at 4.4 per cent compared to the national average of 2.9 per cent.

This combination of high rents and a critical shortage of available rental accommodation has created severe housing stress among a considerable portion of the community, forcing many into homelessness. With the growth in tourism in some coastal communities, property values have soared and increasing numbers of dwellings are used as short term rental accommodation for visitors and tourists, further reducing available and affordable housing stock for people in the private rental market.

The Richmond Federal Electorate was ranked third highest across the whole of Australia for rental stress at 43 per cent (7,390 households).

Housing stress is particularly high among renter households at 38.8 per cent compared to 28.4 per cent for NSW and 28 per cent for Australia.

The four least affordable local government areas for renters in regional NSW are located within the Northern Rivers.

The average monthly rental vacancy rate for the Northern Rivers over the 12 months to April 2020 was 1.8 per cent. This is a very tight market compared to Sydney where the vacancy rate is 3.4 per cent.

There is substantial pressure in regional housing markets in NSW with most of the regional markets surveyed recording average monthly vacancy rates of 2 per cent or less over the same period.

While the Northern Rivers only represents 4 per cent of the NSW population the region recorded 18.7 per cent of the State’s rough sleepers on Census night in 2016 (up from 18.4 per cent in 2011).

Affordable housing and rental stress remains an issue.....

 The Guardian, 6 February 2022:

In the already Covid-stretched hospitals of northern New South Wales, health workers are struggling with another growing pressure caused by the pandemic.

House prices have soared in Byron Bay and surrounding areas since Covid lockdowns and work-from-home inspired many to flee the city for a sea or tree change.

And while the impacts on buyers or renters in the area have been well documented, hospital workers say it’s having far-reaching effects on the community’s health.

The consequences of the housing crush are being felt at hospitals such as Ballina, where nurse and New South Wales Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA) representative Suzie Melchior works.

“That’s not just staff struggling to get permanent housing, but we’ve seen people who are almost itinerant,” she said.

“We’re not used to people living out of their vehicles, their cars. That seems to be a new thing.”

Every additional stressor is being felt due to the surge in demand brought on by Covid, and already prevalent GP shortages.

“They don’t have a GP so they’re coming to us for their basic healthcare needs,” Melchior said.

“They know they’re not meant to be accessing emergency departments to get their blood pressure medication or their gout medication but they don’t have the option.”

Long-term renter and mother of four Jenny – not her real name – is at breaking point after two years of housing instability, and has seen her health slide as a result.

“There have been moments where I ask, ‘What’s the point in going on?’,” she said. “My stress levels are through the roof. A human right to safety and shelter – there’s nothing remotely close to that now.”

Jenny has a month left at her short-term rental in Alstonville and after months of searching still can’t find a secure and affordable next step.

She is considering buying a caravan or pitching a tent.

“I wouldn’t have considered that in the past but what are our options? What else can we do?” she said.

Melchior said many patients were presenting without Medicare cards because they didn’t have an address for them to be posted to, taking up extra admin time that overworked staff didn’t have.

“There’s a ripple effect,” she said.

“It is small in the scheme of things but if you multiply that across how many other people are having similar issues … it’s big.”

Another local nurse – who wished to remain anonymous – said she was also seeing more patients without a fixed address.

“Even in the maternity unit we see it – new mums living in caravan parks because they can’t find housing,” she told the Guardian……

The Guardian, 25 January 2022:

Nearly half of all people who sought help with homelessness last year in New South Wales did not get it, a new report has shown.

According to data from the Productivity Commission’s annual report on government services, 48.2% of people in Australia’s most populous state who asked for accommodation assistance from specialist homelessness services in the 2020-2021 financial year went without.

That figure represents a substantial increase from five years ago, when 37.2% of people did not receive the help they had requested.

The Productivity Commission report, released on Tuesday, contains detailed information on the performance of Australia’s social support services, including housing, homelessness, aged care, youth justice, child protection and more.

It shows unmet requests for homelessness accommodation services are increasing across Australia, from 30.2% of people going unassisted nationally in 2016–2017, to 32.2% in the last financial year…..

Productivity Commission, Report on Government Services 2022: Housing and Homelessness, 25 January 2022:

Low income earners are particularly susceptible to housing instability as market factors lead to higher private housing prices. ‘Rental stress’, defined as spending more than 30 per cent of gross household income on rent, is a measure of housing affordability for this cohort. In 2017-18, of the 27.1 per cent of Australian households renting in the private sector, 43.4 per cent were low income. Of these households, 50.2 per cent experienced rental stress – largely unchanged over the past 10 years.

Of low income households that were CRA [Commonwealth Rental Assistance] recipients at end June 2021, 72.5 per cent would have experienced rental stress without CRA. With CRA, 45.7 per cent still experienced rental stress…..

In 2021 the percentage of NSW households considered to be under rental stress:

• At more than 30% household income on rent.

Receiving no housing assistance payment from the federal government – 75.2%;

With rental assistance payment (CRA) from federal government – 48.5%.

• At more than 50% household income on rent.

Receiving no housing assistance payment from the federal government – 35.1%;

With rental assistance payment (CRA) from federal government – 20.4%.

In 2020-21 there were 321,509 eligible dependent children living in renting households which received Commonwealth Rental Assistance.

As at 30 June 2021, nationally there was a total of 400 792 households and 422 753 social housing dwellings (tenancy rental units for community housing), excluding ICH [Indigenous Community Housing]. In addition, as at 30 June 2020 (latest available data), there were 16 363 households and 15 053 permanent dwellings managed by government funded ICH organisations.

The total number of low income households in all categories of social housing in NSW as of 30 June 2021 was 141,597.

The occupancy rate of all NSW social housing categories is high. Only between est. 3-5% of all social housing stock was available to new tenants on 30 June 2021.

There has been a marked rise in community housing stock in NSW. However this in part reflects a transfer of 13,465 public housing dwellings (under management or held by title) to community housing organizations between 1 July 2018 & 30 June 2021, rather than an significant increase in total social housing stock numbers overall.

For decades the NSW Government has indulged in shifting deck chairs around on the Titanic rather than addressing the sinking proportion of social and affordable housing in the overall for sale or rental residential housing mix. 

By 2019 the NSW shortfall in social and affordable housing projected unmet need was est. 316,700 units by 2036 - est. 99,700 of those units representing the shortfall in rural & regional New South Wales.

SOCIAL HOUSING STOCK NSW 30 JUNE 2012 to 30 JUNE 2021

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare releases a new report but the problem of homelessness remains

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), media release, 11 December 2020:

More than 290,000 Australians were assisted by government-funded Specialist Homelessness Services during 2019–20, according to a new report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

The latest Specialist Homelessness Services annual report covers the 2019–20 period, including months before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and is accompanied by updated Specialist Homelessness Services Collection Data Cubes with information on clients assisted in states and territories.

‘Government-funded Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS) assist Australians who are experiencing homelessness—or at risk of becoming homeless—with services such as advice, counselling, professional legal services, meals and accommodation, said AIHW spokesperson Dr. Gabrielle Phillips.

‘Between 2015–16 and 2019–20, the number of clients helped by specialist homelessness agencies increased by an average of 1.0% per year from 279,200 to 290,500 people. ‘In 2019–20, about 114,000 clients were homeless when they first presented to services seeking help and 152,300 were at risk of homelessness.’

Of the 290,000 clients who were assisted in 2019–20, 60% (174,500) were female and 29% (85,000) were aged under 18 years.

About 119,000 clients assisted by Specialist Homelessness Services had experienced family and domestic violence, up from 116,000 clients in 2018–19. Ninety per cent of adult clients who had experienced family and domestic violence were female and over half (51%) of clients aged under 18 years had experienced family and domestic violence.

About 88,300 clients accessing services in 2019–20 reported having a current mental health issue which was almost 1 in 3 of all SHS clients (30%).

‘People with current mental health issues is one of the fastest growing client groups, increasing by 22% since 2015–16,’ Dr. Phillips said.

‘Various factors, including increased identification, community awareness and reduced stigma, may have had an impact on the increase in self-identification and reporting of mental illness among Specialist Homelessness Services clients.’

About $68.7 million in financial assistance was provided to clients in 2019–20, up from $61.1 million in 2018–19. This included $32.3 million used to help clients establish or maintain existing tenancies and $21.9 million to provide short-term or emergency accommodation, some of which was related to COVID-19 responses.

Clients supported each month can be found in our SHS monthly data product; the latest release includes preliminary data for the June–September 2020 time period.

In New South Wales in 2019-20 homeless agencies provided 70,400 individuals with a a service – 41% of these people were in regional areas, 1% in remote areas and 58% in major cities.

At least 38,334 of these individuals were homeless when they first presented (around 3,066 having no shelter or improvised shelter) and the majority of these homeless people appear to have been female.

Given that 1.6 million women in Australia are thought to have experienced sexual and/or physical violence from a partner it should come as no surprise that family or domestic violence was one of the top three reasons given by those seeking assistance.

The services offered by homeless agencies could have been information only, referral to another agency, overnight accommodation, short-term accommodation, advocacy in an effort to obtain permanent accommodation pr retain existing accommodation - or no assistance was able to be given at the time so that the individual walked out as homeless as when they entered the agency. On average 25 requests for assistance went unmet each day.

The 2016 national census revealed that across Australia 116,000 people were experiencing homelessness on census night. It also revealed the NSW Northern Rivers region was no stranger this homelessness. In the Richmond Valley – Hinterland 57.5 persons out of every 10,000 were homeless, in Richmond Valley – Coastal it was 53.9 persons per 10,000, the Tweed Valley 48.6 persons and Clarence Valley 44.8 persons.

In 2020 it was reported that local police believed that up to 400 women were sleeping in tents or cars in the Byron Bay area and it is thought that over 200 people may be sleeping rough in the Clarence Valley.

Northern Rivers homelessness and COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020

Echo NetDaily, 20 May 2020:

A quick look at the Byron Council website will tell you that the average rent in the Shire is $590 or 49 per cent of the average household income of $1,218. The comparisons on the page show Sydney’s Woollahra $800 rent being 44 per cent of a $1,814 income and Brighton in Melbourne with rents averaging 42 per cent of the income at $650. Even Brisbane’s Eaton Hills gets a look in with a $510 rent being 39 per cent of a $1,312 income. 

This is cold comfort if you happen to be a single parent whose only income is a Centrelink benefit. You’d definitely not be earning $12k a week, yet you’d be more than likely looking at $500 to $600 a week in rent – unless of course, you ended up homeless because you just couldn’t find something you could afford. 

Our volunteer services such as the Liberation Larder and the Mullumbimby Neighbourhood Centre are currently groaning under the weight of extra homelessness since the start of the pandemic. People who didn’t expect to be here and out of work, are – and the growing number of our own homeless is now making the issue and epidemic in the Byron Shire. 

We know what the volunteers are doing but what is the government doing?..... 

Tamara Smith MP says that the Greens have been working closely with the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) through the pandemic with regard to support for rough sleepers and people on the homelessness spectrum in Byron and Ballina Shire’s.... 

Federal Member for Richmond Justine Elliot says there are more homeless Australians than ever before. ‘On the North Coast we have a massive housing affordability and homelessness crisis, and people receiving Centrelink benefits are the hardest hit. ....

 ‘I have been inundated with requests for assistance and by many locals who have raised their concerns about the impact that this situation will have on our most vulnerable. The impact of Coronavirus threatens to make it even worse’. 

Ms Elliot says that as unemployment increases there’s a real risk that people don’t just lose their job, but also their home.’Housing is now on the frontline of Australian healthcare.’ 

‘Labor welcomed the National Cabinet’s decision to freeze evictions for the next six months for tenants in financial distress due to the impact of Coronavirus. We have consistently said that no one should lose their home, whether they own it or rent it, because of the virus. This will help.’  

‘As winter approaches and the Centrelink lines get longer, the charities that help the homeless and most vulnerable are suffering the perfect storm. The volunteer pool for a lot of charities is largely older Australians – most vulnerable to the Coronavirus. 

‘Most of these are smaller community-based charities that fill local needs. That loss places greater strain on other remaining services as the demand for help grows and grows. 

‘That’s why this extra support and assistance for providers of food and emergency relief and other homelessness services is so important. 

‘Both the State and Federal Governments must continue to provide support and assistance for those most vulnerable in our community.’ 

This would appear to be different just south of Byron. State Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin said she had been assured that the majority of people in their homeless community have been accommodated. ‘Many are in hotels and motels. It is wonderful for people to have a roof over their heads as being isolated in lockdown brings many challenges,’ said Ms Saffin. ‘I worry about accessing services that people need during these times such as GPs and health-related ones, that can be hard to access for people who are homeless at the best of times. 

‘The NSW Treasury has published a document titled Supporting NSW, and in the Communities and Families section, it specifies three key areas of funding under the heading, A Roof Over Heads.

‘I have written to NSW Minister for Families, Communities and Disability Services Gareth Ward and asked him if he could provide a breakdown of this, at least for my Lismore Electorate.’.....