Teachers, police and other “key workers” looking to move into the Byron Shire will be offered accommodation in pod-style cabins originally built to house survivors of the 2022 floods. 

Byron Mayor Sarah Ndiaye said securing the pods at Brunswick Heads as homes for key workers and others in housing stress was “fantastic” news.

“We really do need houses as soon as possible … everything just takes too long and when we have many people, as we do, that are homeless or in extreme housing stress, we need to be able to deliver as soon as possible,” she said.

“Main thing is … that this great resource, that a lot of money was spent on, isn’t going to go to waste and that we are going to be able to utilise it.

“We need to deliver some long-term affordable housing options for people.”

Nine pod villages were set up across the Northern Rivers after the 2022 floods. (ABC News: Bronwyn Herbert)

NSW Housing Minister Rose Jackson said she was keen to see other councils in the region follow Byron’s lead.

“We want to have a future for every single one of those pods, none of them are going to end up in landfill,” she said.

“The offer’s still on the table for other councils in other areas if they want to revisit it.”

Tweed Shire Council had previously rejected an offer for a similar strategy at its Kingscliff pod village, but Mayor Chris Cherry said she was open to it.

“I would be hopeful that our councillors may be able to think about it again and I’d certainly be happy if the state government asked about whether we would reconsider it,” she said.

Social housing builds

The move was announced as the NSW government unveiled plans for a “historic pipeline of housing”, which included more than 355 public and community homes to be built across the Northern Rivers by mid-2027.

NSW Premier Chris Minns and Housing Minister Rose Jackson outside a temporary accommodation centre in Tweed Heads. (ABC News: Cathy Adams)

The Tweed Shire is set to get 133 new homes, 69 are slated for the Richmond Valley, and Lismore, Ballina and the Clarence Valley will get about 50 each.

“It’s actually the largest [housing] pipeline in any part of regional NSW, so we are delivering more homes in this region than we are in the rest of the state,” Ms Jackson said.

The government announced in February it would transform a former Tweed Heads retirement village into 70 supported temporary accommodation units under its Housing Innovation Fund.

It has now purchased the site to make the arrangement permanent.

A former retirement village in Tweed Heads has been turned into 70 temporary accommodation units. (Supplied: NSW government)

Elderly couple Gloria and Lindsay Judd said they were on the verge of homelessness when they had to move out of their rental home of 30 years, until space was found for them in the temporary accommodation facility.

“I was down in the dumps really bad … and I told Linds, ‘I’ll buy a tent and we can live in a tent on the road’,” Ms Judd said.

“We’re both on a pension and we can’t afford to rent a place [for] about $900 a week.”

Gloria and Lindsay Judd were on the verge of homelessness when they had to move out of their rental home of 30 years. (ABC News: Cathy Adams)

NSW Premier Chris Minns said innovative projects were crucial in a region with more than 4,100 people on the social housing waitlist, including more than 1,200 on the priority list.

“We need to be in a situation where we’re looking at new ideas to house people in desperate, desperate situations and desperate circumstances,” he said.

Theresa Mitchell, who operates nearby homelessness outreach service Agape, said 133 new social housing properties in the Tweed was “nothing” compared to the number of homeless people in the area.

Theresa Mitchell says 133 social homes in the Tweed is “not even going to halve the problem”. (ABC News: Emma Rennie)

Ms Mitchell said one client recently entered social housing after 21 years on the waitlist.

“It’s not going to solve the problem, it’s not even going to halve the problem, or a third,” she said.

“What a sad state of affairs when we’ve got 80-year-olds looking at living in tents.”

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