NSW Labor Is Demolishing Lismore Homes and Evicting Squatters During a Housing Crisis

Housing advocates gathered on Bundjalung land in Lismore on 16 April 2025 to protest the ongoing demolition of homes, some built with 100-year-old timber, that were bought by the state, as part of the October 2022-announced NSW Resilient Homes buyback scheme, which was established to assist NSW Northern River residents devastated by dual unprecedented floods in early 2022.

In the wake of the February and March 2022 floods, the state bought up $900 million worth of homes situated in particularly flood prone areas in the region, with many long-term residents taking comfort in the understanding that their homes would not be demolished, but rather relocated to less flood prone areas.

However, as the Northern Rivers was once again the subject of flooding rains due to the onset of Cyclone Alfred last month, and the town of Lismore, still attempting to rebuild itself since the 2022 disasters, was again submerged. And it was in the wake of the latest devastating rains that NSW premier Chris Minns became aware that people had been squatting in some buyback houses.

“It’s not tolerable to have so many people located in flood prone land still in danger and have SES personnel-volunteers having to go and check on those households… to keep them safe,” NSW premier Chris Minns told the press on 11 March.

“We bought those houses to keep the community safe, so that no one would live there, and to have squatters move in off the back of that is completely unacceptable, so I have made a decision with the Reconstruction Authority that we are going to demolish these houses,” the NSW Labor leader added, despite the squatters having vacated of their own accord prior to the main onset of Cyclone Alfred.

NSW Greens MLC Sue Higginson, a Northern Rivers local, has been leading the campaign to prevent the tearing down of houses in the region that too has the highest number of rough sleepers in this state, and whilst she’s up against the premier, NSW recovery minister Janelle Saffin, federal Nationals MP Kevin Hogan and Lismore mayor Steve Krieg, she’s got the majority of the community’s backing.

Occupation until relocation

“Rather than taking responsibility for the failed recovery from the floods, the premier decided to punch down on the Lismore community by putting his jack boot into some people in the community and fuelling division,” said Higginson, adding that all of the federal, state and local government members opposing her are in “a race to the bottom of the political barrel”.

“What Lismore needs is a government that is genuinely interested in solutions and that’s willing to work for the people to overcome problems,” she continued. “Recovering a community after what we’ve been through, and at the confluence of the climate, housing and cost-of-living crises is a wicked problem, meaning sometimes part solutions can create new problems.”

One and a half thousand residences were destroyed in the 2022 Lismore floods. Homelessness NSW puts the number of homeless in the regional town at 487. More than 600 homes have been bought by the government, as part of the $800 million Perrottet government-launched initiative, 420 of which were slated for improvement, however only 19 houses have gone through this process.

Housing demolitions commenced in March. Higginson explains that a squatter community that has grown on Lismore’s Pine Street “never intended to be there forever”, as they’ve understood the empty houses are only temporarily available prior to their relocation. The Pine Street squatters have, however, suffered vigilante violence and harassment, since Minns called them out for eviction.

Squatting is technically illegal in NSW, and those occupying a vacant property are open to being charged with a break and enter offence or trespass, but those occupying vacant properties in this manner often get by with living in them without the notice or concern of police.

As for squatter’s rights, these do exist in NSW, under the common law doctrine of adverse possession, which allows a squatter to claim ownership a house they’ve occupied openly and continuously for a stipulated period of time, without the owner’s permission.

Section 27 of the Limitation Act 1969 (NSW) sets the period of time for a squatter to claim ownership at 12 years of occupation. So, any fears that the Lismore squatters were after permanent residence are completely unfounded.

“Instead of being thanked for taking care of these beautiful old homes while the Reconstruction Authority did their work,” Higginson told Sydney Criminal Lawyers. “They have been painted falsely as criminals – something that is both untrue and has caused violent acts against them.”

Reconstruction and demolition

The NSW Reconstruction Authority has been tearing down the decades-old houses that have already been demolished. It plans to tear down at least 122 houses. This statutory body was established in late 2022, primarily in response to the 2022 mass flooding events, in order to proactively lower the impact of future natural disasters, as well as to expediate the recovery of affected communities.

“People in the community are standing up against the actions of the Reconstruction Authority and local people are discovering that the promises that demolished homes would be recycled was just another mistruth,” Higginson made clear. Indeed, remains of the houses are currently being transported to Queensland, where in some cases the materials have been pulped.

“The Reconstruction Authority has demolished its own reputation in the community with this new punitive approach,” the Greens justice spokesperson underscored.

A former owner of one of the homes slated for demolition, recently told the Guardian that she’d only agreed to the buyback of her home on the proviso that it would be relocated and other people would then be able to live there. However, she recently learnt it was now to be torn down and was told that reasons for demolition can vary from location, weather events or illegal activity.

On further probing the agency that has the sole purpose of assisting communities after natural disasters, the woman in her 70s found that illegal activity, includes squatters being in the area a vacant home is located, and that’s reason enough to destroy a house in an area now recovering from multiple natural disasters, along with having the state’s largest homelessness issue.

Climate too hard to tackle? Then punish the people

“The community is in a state of shock, the recovery that they were promised has turned into a slugging match between Labor and the Nationals about who can destroy homes and get rid of people experiencing homelessness faster – and to be frank, it’s a disgrace,” Higginson said, following having attended the protests against the demolitions in Lismore on 16 April.

Fifty two homes have so far been demolished and 60 more are slated for the same by midyear. The recovery minister told the ABC last Saturday that the demolitions had always been on the agenda, and the RA has further been requesting that the NSW Supreme Court serve writs of vacant possession, so that those now occupying houses can be evicted and the homes destroyed.

“Given the government’s new element of haste to clear the floodplain of these old homes, we are calling for a plan to relocate all of the homes to higher ground, as an interim step and that they be offered cost free to people that are able to cover the costs of relocation,” said Higginson, as she set out a reasonable alternative to the current process.

“If they don’t do this, the Labor government’s legacy will be that they destroyed, en masse, beautiful old hardwood timber homes that survived decades of floods, in a housing crisis,” the Greens member ended.