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The past two days have seen minor flooding right across the Bega district - nothing unusual about that, other than maybe it happening in the first week of summer rather than earlier in the year.
But spare a thought for those in our community sleeping rough or still without permanent accommodation even two years after bushfires tore into us.
The Social Justice Advocates of the Sapphire Coast do an incredible job. Among their volunteer efforts is a program to source old caravans and refurbish them for use by our region's homeless and vulnerable.
Of late those vulnerable people have more often than not been people who lost their homes in the 2019/20 bushfires, the caravans providing them a temporary haven while they find their feet.
We spoke to Mick Brosnan from the SJA this week and found him in the process of relocating vans away from caravan parks that are bumping up site fees for the summer tourist season.
To be clear, no-one is having a go at the caravan park operators here. Even Mick acknowledged their great generosity in allowing the SJA vans a space as much as they were able.
No-one should begrudge the parks wanting to make the most of this summer's influx of visitors given the previous couple of years of cancellations.
The issue here we should be focusing on is that these vans are even needed in the first place.
How are we in a position where fully two years after the fires there are still people living in tents and temporary vans? People without basic sanitation?
Why is it being left to volunteers and community groups to accommodate and feed our community's most vulnerable?
It's not like there's no money around. Plenty of bushfire recovery projects and programs are being funded every week.
I'm sure those recipients are more than grateful for the government's focus. However, that focus seems often misdirected, or at least directed at easy wins and photo ops rather than situations much trickier to solve like homelessness and housing availability/affordability.
Just this week I was reading of a bushfire-ravaged community in the Blue Mountains that applied for funds to secure its water supply, only to be given $300,000 for community dance lessons instead...
Government at all levels needs to make this humanitarian crisis a priority.
- Ben Smyth, Editor