Indigenous families still homeless months after the floods, as leaders say First Nations people are being overlooked for rentals

After moving accommodation five times in five months, Nyangbal and Dunghutti woman Teresa Anderson has had enough.

The elder’s Cabbage Tree Island home, nestled on a flood plain of cane fields in northern New South Wales, was deemed uninhabitable after the February floods.

She has been homeless since.

“I’ve been moved around five times,” she told the ABC.

“We were at the Ramada [hotel] then we went to Brisbane. Then we had to go outside of town.

Teresa Anderson was in good health before the floods.

But she believes a series of new health issues have been a direct result of the grief and stress of being displaced.

“YO‘I’m struggling,” she said.

As floods devastated Lismore and surrounding towns earlier this year, a sludge of sewage-contaminated water raged down the Richmond River, destroying every home in the Aboriginal community.

There are 23 homes on the island — with some housing up to 12 people — and at the time every single resident of the 180-strong community was left homeless.

Today, every house is still uninhabitable.

According to the Jali Local Aboriginal Land Council, today, almost six months after the disaster, about 500 of the 1,296 northern New South Wales residents who are still homeless are First Nations people.

“That tells me clearly that we’re disproportionate again in relation to the numbers of people who are homeless,” Widjabul man and Jali Land Council chief executive Chris Binge told the ABC.

According to Ms Anderson, Indigenous flood victims have been pushed to the back of the line when it came to finding permanent accommodation.

“They are homeless and staying in tents in front of their homes,” she said.

Temporary housing plan

The NSW Department of Communities and Justice, the organization responsible for helping flood victims into emergency accommodation, told the ABC in a statement it did not collect data on Indigenous status.