Vulnerable residents deal with a battle to find food and someplace dry to sleep when flood waters recede and short-term shelters shut.

Nearly 800 people have looked for haven in NSW evacuation centres but their status as pop-up homes for some will stop to exist after the impact of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred passes.

Kim Kennedy, Vinnies' regional housing and homelessness supervisor for northeast NSW, has actually been on the cutting edge supporting people sleeping rough in flooded zones.

Her task was made harder on Monday due to harm to Fred's Place, the Tweed Heads drop-in centre where she is based, with consistent rains inundating the space.

On any provided day, the centre serves about 130 hot meals to those in requirement however showers and laundry facilities are out of commission up until the flood damage is repaired.

"It has been a horrendous time for the homeless community," Ms Kennedy informed AAP.

"It has actually been really tough trying to get them any kind of shelter."

She said the homeless were looking for any dry places they could sleep across a northern NSW region currently dealing with an alarming scarcity of budget friendly housing.

"We've been helping out a whole household sleeping in their automobile," Ms Kennedy said.

"Seeing them in this horrendous weather is truly terrible."

The Byron Shire regional federal government area, south of Tweed Heads, had the most rough sleepers of any council area in the state, according to a 2024 government street count.

"We absolutely do have a real estate issue in the Northern Rivers and we need options," Ms Kennedy stated.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said evacuation centres set up in schools, universities, health clubs and clubs could not function as a long-term fix to entrenched housing problems in the area.

"I am totally familiar with the significant difficulties for housing in the Northern Rivers, but evacuation centres are not irreversible solutions ... we don't have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allocation," he stated.

The would close in all locations once regional emergency situation orders were lifted, Mr Minns added.

"So I wish to apologise in advance however we need to draw a really clear and understood line."

More than 10,000 individuals were under emergency situation cautions in NSW on Monday morning, while 1800 people were separated by floodwaters.

About 10,000 homes and services were still not connected to power as heavy rain continued to fall in lots of areas.

Major flood cautions were still in place for parts of the Clarence and Richmond rivers, while clean-up operations were under method in other places.

In Pottsville, in between Tweed Heads and Byron Bay, a whale carcass was amongst the particles that cleaned up after huge swells battered the shoreline for days.

Residents from 17 NSW city government locations who had lost income due to the storm would be qualified for federal catastrophe relief funds for up to 13 weeks, it was announced on Monday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the monetary support would be backed by mental health services for affected areas.

"We have actually got your back, that's my message to neighborhoods here," he stated from Lismore on Monday.

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