A performance audit of how effectively, or not, the NSW government provided emergency accommodation and temporary housing in response to the 2022 floods has been released by the NSW Audit Office.
Emergency pod villages for flood-affected residents are spread across the region; there are three located in Byron Shire at Mullumbimby and Brunswick Heads. There are also pods at Kingscliff and Pottsville in Tweed Shire, as well as pod sites in Lismore, Wollongbar, Ballina, Evans Head and Coraki.
The report found that government agencies did not have plans for implementing their responsibilities and the ‘amount of temporary housing provided did not meet the demand’.
Additionally, the ‘extensive waitlist for temporary housing and the remaining demand in the Northern Rivers is unlikely to be met. The NSW Reconstruction Authority has not reviewed this list to confirm its accuracy’.
And while ‘demobilisation plans for the temporary housing villages have been developed, there are no long-term plans in place for the transition of tenants out of the temporary housing’.
Agencies involved in providing emergency accommodation and temporary housing are NSW Reconstruction Authority (formerly Resilience NSW); Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ); Premier’s Department (PD); NSW Public Works (NSWPW) and the Department of Planning and Environment (DPE).
Lismore-based Greens MLC, Sue Higginson, said it was concerning that communities across NSW ‘are still exposed to a government network that is unprepared for future disasters’.
She said, ‘People that have been moved into temporary housing in the Northern Rivers still have no pathway to permanent homes and the pods that they are living in are just a few days away from reaching the end of their design-life of two years’.
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