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.
