Vulnerable residents deal with a fight to discover food and somewhere dry to sleep when flood waters decline and short-term shelters shut.

Nearly 800 individuals have sought haven in NSW evacuation centres however their status as pop-up homes for some will cease to exist after the effect of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred passes.

Kim Kennedy, housing and homelessness manager for northeast NSW, has been on the cutting edge supporting people sleeping rough in flooded zones.

Her job was made harder on Monday due to harm to Fred's Place, the Tweed Heads drop-in centre where she is based, with constant rains swamping the area.

On any offered day, the centre serves about 130 hot meals to those in requirement however showers and laundry centers run out commission till the flood damage is fixed.

"It has actually been a horrendous time for the homeless neighborhood," Ms Kennedy told AAP.

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

She said the homeless were searching for any dry places they might sleep across a northern NSW area already dealing with an alarming shortage of budget-friendly real estate.

"We've been assisting a whole family sleeping in their cars and truck," Ms Kennedy stated.

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

The Byron Shire city government location, 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 require services," Ms Kennedy stated.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said evacuation centres established in schools, universities, gyms and clubs could not serve as a long-term fix to established housing problems in the region.

"I am fully familiar with the considerable challenges for housing in the Northern Rivers, however evacuation centres are not long-term services ... we don't have the resources, the staffing, the time, the allocation," he said.

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

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

More than 10,000 people were under emergency warnings in NSW on Monday morning, while 1800 people were isolated by floodwaters.

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

Major flood warnings 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 among the debris that cleaned up after huge swells damaged the coastline for days.

Residents from 17 NSW regional federal government areas who had actually lost income due to the storm would be eligible for federal disaster relief funds for up to 13 weeks, it was announced on Monday.

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

"We've got your back, that's my message to communities here," he said from Lismore on Monday.

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