More voices of Lismore’s right-to-occupy movement have been heard after police failed to enforce another eviction notice distributed last week.
People from the Northern Rivers and beyond have been occupying, or squatting in, some of Lismore’s otherwise empty and shut-up flood impacted houses for an unknown period of time.
Some started to speak out in recent months after receiving threats of eviction from the NSW Reconstruction Authority.
The properties in question had been sold back to the government through the RA’s Resilient Homes Program.
But it quickly emerged that former homeowners were often happy to have people living in their old houses and caring for the properties, as were neighbours.
Floodplain hopes for promised higher ground
Such was the case at 70 Pine Street, an address that garnered attention when occupiers and supporters rallied in June to ward off eviction.
The beloved old ‘big scrub’ house on stilts was home to a small group of people including local disaster survivors and travellers.
Some of their supporters said they were still living in their own floodplain homes and waiting to decide whether or not to accept offers from the RA through the Resilient Homes Program.
The RA also has a Resilient Lands Program, meant to allow for the release of more flood-risk free land for housing, and many owners of homes on the floodplain are hoping to move their houses to higher ground.
Southern Cross University law lecturer Aidan Ricketts in June told Bay FM’s Community Newsroom he was holding off on accepting a buyback offer pending options via the Resilient Lands Program.
But the reality of this dream is leaving some of the region’s most disaster traumatised people in a perpetual limbo as they live with the fear of not being able to afford to move and not allowed being allowed to live where they are.
More eviction threats
Last week, some squatters again received eviction notices from the RA and a police visit.
The letters were direct copies of the notices sent in June, including the same issue date of 17 June, House You founder Chels Hood-Withey said.
Lismore-based community group Reclaim Our Recovery issued a statement on Thursday describing police involvement.
‘This morning RA security decided to call police, triggering an attempt at an eviction by officers,’ the statement read.
‘The residents and supporters held their ground for today but police have promised to attend at 9am Friday 2nd to ensure people are out of the house,’ RoR said, referring to 172 Currie St, North Lismore.
‘People who live there, don’t have anywhere else to go, and intend to stay.’
Supporters again rallied around occupiers on Friday, hosting breakfasts at impacted properties.
This time, police didn’t end up coming.
The ‘absurdity’ of empty homes and evictions in a housing crisis
‘I landed in that house after the floods,’ Lake Street buy-back resident Alan Presco told CN on Friday, ‘it was owned by a dear old friend of mine’.
‘He’s also gifted me that house and I’m trying to figure out how I could ever afford to buy land and afford to get it moved,’ Mr Presco said.
‘I can’t get any clear answers from the Reconstruction Authority.’
Mr Presco said, like Mr Ricketts in June, he was desperate to find out what assistance, if any, existed for people to move bought-back houses from Lismore’s floodplain to higher ground.
‘There’s meant to be houses, land packages, released at below market value in the new land release over at Southern Cross University,’ Mr Presco said, referring to an announcement from the RA earlier this year of new house-lots to be ready by 2026 as part of the Resilient Lands Program.
Mr Presco said it seemed the RA had back-tracked on the inclusion of land for floodplain houses in the land release.
He wasn’t as worried about immediate eviction as other occupiers in Lismore, having received official permission from the RA to stay in his bought-back home, at least temporarily.
The RA gave owners of bought-back homes 60 days to find new land for them, he said.
‘The only reason that I’m still there is because I wrote letters and I pleaded my case,’ Mr Presco said.
He was more concerned about the ‘immediate precariousness’ of some of the other houses.
People were sheltering in the old homes at the end of winter, Mr Presco said, and were quite vulnerable.
They worried about police showing up ‘to drag them out,’ he said, ‘before they potentially get bulldozed’.
‘Turning them into social housing or relocating them seems a bit too difficult for a government agency that’s got a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars,’ Mr Presco said.
‘I don’t understand the absurdity of the situation.’
Speaking from another bought-back home, Roisin McSweeney said she and fellow occupiers had expected police to follow up on threatened evictions but were feeling resilient.
‘We’ve got a lot of support and a bit of a reputation for protecting these homes that we believe need to be lived in,’ Ms McSweeney said.
* Mia Armitage is Bay FM Community Newsroom EP
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