A CENTACARE team got the call up from Queensland’s Department of Housing to help people experiencing homelessness after floods devastated Maryborough for the second time in six weeks.
As local providers struggled with their own flooded properties, Centacare business manager in the Fraser Coast Mark Window said he was able to relocate a staff member to provide on-the-ground advice to anyone presenting with homelessness issues.
Mr Window, who lives in Maryborough, said he was encouraged by how committed his staff and organisation were to helping people affected by homelessness.
He said they had a staff member at Maryborough’s temporary evacuation centre for a day and a half to help register homeless individuals and families into the state services database, which facilitated referrals to crisis housing availability throughout Queensland.
Maryborough and all along the Fraser Coast have an acute homelessness issue because of the tight rental market, Mr Window said.
In the last December quarter, the vacancy rate in Maryborough was just 0.1 per cent.
This made it next to impossible for relief providers to acquire new properties for housing assistance in those areas, an issue which was only exacerbated by the floods.
Communities across Queensland and New South Wales continue to grapple with the devastation brought on by the floods.
Queensland’s death toll rose to 10 today and the state has been on high alert for the last 24 hours over concerns of “slow moving” storms.
Schools and many businesses remained shut across South East Queensland after concerns had been raised about the current saturation levels and the potential for more storm activity.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk apologised for the inconvenience caused by shutting the schools but stood by her decision.
“If you were in my shoes and you are given the advice that was given to us yesterday, I think everyone would have taken exactly the same decision,” she said.
In NSW, there had been more than 700 call-outs for SES overnight.
The state is expected to receive more than 150mm of rain in the next four days.
Lismore residents have begun to count the damage as record-breaking floodwaters began to recede.
Lismore Bishop Greg Homeming released a message on social media, saying the tragic floods had come at a time when people were looking forward to 2022 as a “year of hope, a good year”.
Bishop Homeming said he himself had been evacuated by boat because of the flood.
“Our first flood in Lismore was in 2017 and I don’t know that we’ve really as a community recovered from that flood,” he said.
“COVID hit; fires hit; and we’ve been in, I suppose, a state of hope – looking to the future, where’s it going.
“And now, we’ve been hit again at a time when our hearts were already heavy with the many things that have happened.”
He said there was a terrible feeling of helplessness.
“The first thing that I want to say is everybody in Lismore suffers with those who have lost everything,” he said.
Bishop Homeming said he received messages from around the world from people wanting to help.
“So in that sense, we are not alone,” he said.
He said the Church would begin fundraising and do what could be done.
“We are in it together,” he said.
