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The Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation (NRRC) faces a huge challenge if it is to meet its own targets for assessing flood-damaged homes.
Key points:
- Just two settlements have been completed in the flood buyback program
- More than 5,000 applications are still to be assessed before a June 30 deadline
- The mayor of Lismore says people are moving away and that "breaks his heart"
The corporation's latest update shows more than 5,000 assessments will need to be done in the next five weeks to meet the June 30 deadline.
Lismore Mayor Steve Krieg said there was a growing sense of frustration about the slow pace of recovery.
"Fourteen or 15 months post-disaster we would have liked to have seen a lot more progress," he said.
"There's no question about that.
"To think that there are so many of our residents either living out of home or in temporary accommodation is not ideal, but I keep relaying that the size and the scale of what is happening in Lismore has never been undertaken in this country."
There are more than 6,400 households registered with the NRRC to be assessed for a buyback, house raising, or retrofit across the seven flood-affected local government areas in the Northern Rivers.
Initial assessments to see if people are eligible for help have now been carried out for 1,031 home owners.
In a statement, the NRRC said it now had 104 house buyback offers accepted and two settlements completed.
The majority of flood-affected people are in the Lismore area, where more than 1,800 residences were flood affected, 600 severely damaged or destroyed.
Housing minister concerned at slow pace
The New South Wales Housing Minister, Rose Jackson, said the acceptable timeline had passed for those waiting for housing solutions.
"There are still 800 people waiting for pod village spots, so the housing issues are profound," she said.
"I don't want to put a time frame on it: 'Oh, it's OK for people to wait another six months or 12 months.' We just need to get the solutions moving as soon as we can."
Details on flood-free land yet to be released
The slow progress of the Resilient Lands program is also causing concern.
The scheme, which was announced in August 2022, was designed to identify flood-free land that could be rezoned for residential development.
It attracted more than 300 expressions of interest, with details of the selected sites originally due to be released in April.
That still has not happened, and there are fears people being offered buybacks will lose patience and move elsewhere.
The Lismore mayor said it was already happening.
"I know of two families, one is relocating to Kyogle and another to Tenterfield, and that breaks my heart," Mr Krieg said.
"I keep referring back to when Premier Perrottet at the time made the statement that no-one would be worse off and we'll do our best to keep everyone in their community.
"It appears now that that is not the case."
Lismore MP Janelle Saffin said she was "beyond frustrated" by the delays, which left flood survivors with too many questions.
"Is there a block of land, and what price is it, and how can it work?" she said.
"Most people do want to stay here, and they want an option with that.
"Some people are happy to take the buyback and they'll look for somewhere here, but all of those options should be in front of them now."