Residents of Spencer and Gunderman are frustrated over lengthy delays in accessing funding from the State Government’s Back Home flood relief package with many still struggling to recover from the devastating flood events in February.
The Back Home fund, announced early in April, made grants of up to $20,000 available to flood-affected residents in a number of local government areas, but originally excluded communities in the Lower Hawkesbury, with Central Coast LGA excluded from the eligibility area.
The funding was extended to include Spencer and Gunderman later that month following representations from the Rier Cares organisation and Parliamentary Secretary for the Central Coast, Adam Crouch, but residents are only now beginning to have access to the money.
Bianca Hudson is one of the residents affected.
“My home was flooded on the 21st of February and I only just got access to the funding,” she said.
“While I am thankful, what has been the most frustrating is the lack of a logical thought process in how the Government responded by offering relief based on Local Government Areas rather than where the flood actually hit.
“It was so difficult to get (together) the specific documents they were asking for.
“When you’re facing a flood, the last thing you are thinking about is getting your identity documents – you’re thinking ‘I need to get life-jackets for my children.’
Hudson said people in Spencer did not have access to power for weeks.
“My home was also two metres underwater so now we need to renovate to remove all the mould that has grown.
“After a flood, you find your entire history is gone and you begin a process on how I get this back.
“The support needs to be immediate.
Member for Gosford, Liesl Tesch, says it is outrageous that not only were residents on the Central Coast initially denied access to funding, but many who had lost identity documents and needed to apply for the funding were left stranded.
“Yet again the Central Coast has been a blind spot in the Government’s disaster management plans,” she said.
River Cares President, Robyn Downham, said applying for funding for the various grants, including the Back Home, Rental Assistance for Flood Victims and Storm & Flood Disaster Recovery Small Business fund had proven to be difficult for the community.
“To apply for the above-mentioned grants there are so many hoops to jump through,” Downham said.
“In addition, not every resident has access to a computer or there is very limited internet coverage making the application on-line arduous and extremely frustrating,” she said.
Downham said residents in both Gunderman and Spencer were trying to get on with their lives as best as they could.
“A number of people are still cleaning up, repairing and replacing flood damaged property.
“Trying to get tradespeople down to the area is proving to be a problem.”
Downham said the organisation is very concerned about the mental health of numerous members of the community who are still very distressed and having difficulty coping with their lives, emotionally, physically and financially.
“This area on the Lower Hawkesbury is predominantly an ageing demographic with a large proportion that live on their own,” she said.
Terry Collins