In January this year, 40 squatters living in buyback houses in Pine Street, Lismore were served notices to vacate. They had been living there for about 18 months.
Premier Chris Minns said the homes will be demolished and the squatters removed.
For Naomi Worrall from Kyogle this is personal. Her former home, the one she thought she would live in forever, could be one of those houses.
Here’s what she had to say.
We need to talk about Pine Street.
I’m furious.
I lived in my beautiful little 1900s railway cottage on Pine Street for 15 years. She was going to be my forever home and I invested everything in her and her garden with that vision in mind. But it was not to be.
After the 2022 flood, she cleaned up okay and I was hopeful that we could move together to a new patch of land, well above the floodplain.
However, after only a few weeks of dealing with the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation, I realised three things:
1. The process would take many years
2. My mental health would not withstand dealing with the Corp for that long.
3. Living there with all the houses around me deserted and boarded up would be horrible and frightening.
And so I made the very painful decision to accept a buyback. I know I made the right decision but shutting the front door on her for the last time was surprisingly heartbreaking.
I felt like I was deserting her; this little abode who had stood through so much adversity for over a century. I consoled myself with the promise that where possible, our houses would be saved.
I always knew that prolonged neglect of these houses would lead to their destruction.
And I suspected the bureaucrats and lawyers who were getting paid bloated salaries to keep telling us how hard it all was would welcome any excuse to knock them down – all they had to do was wait for the squatters or rats to arrive and they would have it
So enter, the activist squatters to drive that outcome, with a little help from Alfred.
Did anyone who knows anything think a government that just spent millions to move people out of the most dangerous parts of Lismore would give the nod to another community of unknowns setting up there?
The issue has been blown up and there’s no putting that genie back in its bottle. If the camp and those people advertising free housing are not shut down, more will come and they won’t all be single parents made homeless from the flood, and peaceful backpackers who like to garden.
How many people will come and who will be responsible for their wellbeing when the next flood hits? No responsible government could possibly agree to that. And anyone in parliament knows it.
Personally, I’m not bothered by people putting a rent-free roof over their head.
I’ve got bigger issues than bitching about whether or not people struggling with homelessness are paying for water. I actually quite like the idea of a homeless local looking after my old girl and keeping her safe but the political grandstanders have now made that impossible.
The only way to save these houses now is to do everything we can to move squatters on: offer meaningful assistance to those with children. Go down and ask what they need to move out and advocate for them.
Do the tough work of organising the community support needed to save these irreplaceable old homes and offer workable solutions.
Digging in, raising flags and banging culturally appropriated festival drums won’t garner widespread community support. But it may just ensure the destruction.
Naomi Worrall, Kyogle