The Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation has hit a key milestone – it has signed off on its 100th flood-impacted home buyback. Meanwhile Social Futures' Recovery Connect service continues to help individuals and communities impacted by natural disaster. Recovery Connect helped place Heather's family in a new rental home after they were displaced by the floods. Now Heather and her family have some sense of normal, as they wait to hear if they are eligible for a buys back, house raising or retrofitting. You can contact Recovery Connect by phoning 1800 717 265
Released: May 25, 2023
The Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation has hit a key milestone – it has signed off on its 100th flood-impacted home buyback.
It has made 340 valuations undertaken under the Resilient Homes buyback program, made 260 offers and 104 offers accepted.
Initial eligibility assessments have now been carried out for 1031 homeowners and the NRRC will contact all homeowners registered for the program and tell them of their indicative eligibility across the three streams – buybacks, house raising and retrofitting.
With 6471 registration to date for the Resilient Homes Program, that leaves 5,440 to be notified by June 30.
But among the number waiting to hear is Heather of Lismore.
Heather and her family had lived in their home in Lismore for around five years, but in February 2022 it was swamped by flood water.
Repairs are estimated at somewhere in the range of $260,000 to fully restore the house. Immediately after the floods, the family was forced into emergency accommodation in a caravan park in Ballina but in November they joined the Social Futures Recovery Connect program.
Recovery Connect is a new support service for individuals and communities impacted by natural disaster. At Recovery Connect people meet a Recovery Linker, who directly assists or connect the person to the right services – meaning they don’t have to keep re-telling their story to multiple organisations.
Recovery Connect helped place Heather’s family in a new rented home in Goonellabah and now the family again have some sense of normal, as they wait to hear if they are eligible for a buys back, house raising or retrofitting.
You can contact Recovery Connect by phoning 1800 717 265.
Watch the video to learn more about Heather’s story.
PHOTO: Lisa Bristow