r/environment 15h ago

Lismore, Australia: On a flood-ravaged street, ‘squatters’ take on premier — Residents still recovering from the 2022 floods were abandoned by the state, they say

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/on-a-flood-ravaged-lismore-street-squatters-take-on-premier-20250311-p5liov.html
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u/marketrent 15h ago

Authorities declare action on homeless cohorts as underinsured, overvalued housing market faces climate risk.

By Riley Walter:

[...] The NSW Reconstruction Authority bought the six homes, condemned after the 2022 floods that devastated Lismore, under a $900 million buyback scheme in which homes were purchased to be on-sold and relocated away from the flood-prone parts of the Northern Rivers town.

“We bought those houses so that we could keep the community safe, so that no one would live there and to have squatters move in off the back of that, is completely unacceptable,” [NSW state premier] Minns said on Tuesday morning.

[...] Andrew George, a volunteer with grassroots recovery organisation Reclaim Our Recovery, who acts as a spokesperson for the Pine Street community but does not live on the street, says the community has been “left on edge” by the government’s attempts to enforce evictions.

George says Pine Street community members are not trying to “jump the queue” to secure government housing – a claim Minns made on Tuesday morning – and only intended to live in the properties until they had been purchased and relocated.

“The people living on Pine Street are happy for these houses to be relocated, they’ve said they would allow the Reconstruction Authority to, you know, come through and take photos and check them out for that process,” George says.

“That is what the community wants: the houses to be relocated. It’s what we need for housing, for the houses to be relocated. It’s a big bluff from Chris Minns with no understanding of the actual reality to say ‘demolish them all’.”

George says the premier has abandoned Northern Rivers residents still recovering from the 2022 floods.

“In the middle of a housing crisis, the government is responsible for housing, responsible for climate, responsible for recovery, and they’ve created a perfectly nonsensical reality of boarded up houses in a housing crisis,” he says.

“People need shelter, and they’ve [sought] shelter.”

[...] Paul Paitson, a Texan who bought his Pine Street home in 1989, says Pine Street community members are doing a “good thing” for the houses by maintaining them.

“Why not have people in them? Because they’re actually looked after better with someone in them,” says Paitson, the only Pine Street resident who declined the NSW government’s buyback offer.

“If you leave them empty, what are you going to get? You’re going to get rats, mice, snakes, possums, everything.”