It was July 12 when Lismore City Councillors first voted on using Hepburn Park as temporary accommodation to help house Lismore's displaced residents following the natural disaster that smashed Lismore and the Northern Rivers on February 28.

Mayor Steve Krieg put a motion forward in favour of using Hepburn Park as temporary emergency accommodation but the motion did not receive any support from councillors so the motion did not move to a debate and vote.

In August, Hepburn Park was back on the agenda but was defeated 4/5 on the night with Crs Colby and Cook absent.

Here we are again four months later with Lismore City Councillors once again debating and voting on the use of Hepburn Park as a temporary housing option.

However, this time the plan had changed to use only 20% of Hepburn Park or one-fifth of the land leaving plenty of room for sport, exercise and walking the dogs. See the diagram below.

If approved, Hepburn Park would be the home to approximately 50 pods and house between 100 and 200 people depending on how many people inhabit each pod. This would have a positive impact on the 427 Lismore people that need emergency accommodation.

It was certainly a divided councillor camp and the final vote reflected that division.

Councillors Bird, Ekins, Guise, Cook and Krieg all spoke passionately for Councillor (Cr) Bird, Cook and Ekins's rescission motion to revoke the council's last vote and vote for the updated proposal, while Crs Rob, Gordon, Colby, Hall, Jensen and Bing spoke passionately against the motion.

Basically, it can be summarised as those that put flood-affected people, whether they be homeless or staying with families and friends, ahead of all else versus those that blame Resilience NSW for not looking for more suitable options and not looking for alternative solutions like subsidising the rental market.

That is not to say, the 'against' councillors don't want to find immediate solutions and don't care about the part of the community that is looking for accommodation, they all stated they do. Their point is to force Resilience NSW into exploring other options and offering those solutions quickly.

The debate started during the public speaking sessions soon after the Lismore City Council meeting started at 6pm yesterday evening.

Former Mayor Jenny Dowell spoke first saying "You have the chance to show the people of Lismore that you care" and quoted former opposition leader John Brogden who, at a recent NSW Local Government conference, said the most challenging time after a disaster is 12 to 18 months after it occurs. Lismore and the Northern Rivers will be in that zone soon.

Lee Luong, a flood-affected resident, drove 40 minutes from Skennars Head to ask for a yes vote as he cried throughout his time.

Marcus Bebb is a South Lismore resident who is still living in two caravans at the Lismore Showground in the Gemfest entrance. Marcus explained his priority is to put a roof over the head of his family while he waits for his house to be assessed, "My house is screwed," he told council.

(Marcus and Leonie Bebb back in August at the Lismore Showground at the Gemfest entrance. They are still living there with their two children)

Marcus' options are limited as they continue to pay off a $300,000 mortgage, wait for the buyback options to be finalised, if he is a candidate, and has had no word from his insurance company.

"If I don't have my caravan, which I don't at Christmas, I've got to leave the area. I'll lose my job, I'll have to pull my kids out of Year 11 and 12 and we've got to leave the area."

"I shouldn't have to sit here and explain to you how much we need these pods," Marcus told councillors.

This has been an emotional issue for Cr Bird as through her work with Resilient Lismore she has seen the impact on an ongoing basis since February 28.

"The maps are in the report that show the size of the footprint. There will still be adequate open space retained, there's still the ability for sports clubs to use that open space. There's still space for the community to walk their dogs, to exercise and to have that amenity that is so important to them."

Cr Bird's updated proposal included a 2-year timeframe for Hepburn Park, wanted to understand the consultation plan from Resilience NSW as well as what the transition plan would look like for people that would move into the temporary accommodation facilities.

"We can't continue to delay on making a decision on this matter. We need to support our community, we need to provide a solution that provides a connection to community safety support services."

Cr Cook addressed some community concern that the people who live in this sort of temporary housing are the lowest class of dysfunctional alcoholics and this is not the right environment for them.

"That's not what our flood victims are. Flood survivors are our friends, they're our neighbours, they're our community, they are people who voted for us. They are people we worked with, played sport with, the people we serve coffee to or we've been served by them, our kid went to school with their kids, many have jobs, many lost jobs due to the fact that their employers lost everything in the floods."

"They deserve our respect, they deserve our best efforts to find them suitable accommodation, temporary accommodation until more permanent housing solutions can be provided."

Mayor Steve Krieg related a story where he took his two youngest daughters up to Hepburn Park to play touch football and also took the dog for a walk.

"After my daughter's touch game she said, "are you really going to put a pod village here?"

On the night of the recent minor flood, the Mayor was due to travel to the Hunter Valley with other councillors for a local government conference.

"I chose to stay not because I thought the levee was going to top but because I had three daughters sitting on my bed listening to the rain and crying. I'm not telling you this as a bleeding heart story but I'm telling you this because this is people's reality."

The flip side of the coin was that Resilience NSW could put more options on the table such as subsidised houses for rent so that families could live in an affordable house with space around them rather than the cramped conditions of a temporary pod village. This would help the house rental market at the same time.

Cr Gordon stated there were 79 homes available in Lismore for rent, something that was unheard of 12 months ago with a rental vacancy rate of around 1%.

"We've got nine houses to rent, six of those have been available for, I think, up to six weeks," Cr Gordon said.

While Cr Gordon may be spot on with his numbers, you do need to remove the houses in the CBD or South and North Lismore, something a quick search on Domain revealed there were quite a few. Do we really want to put traumatised people and families back in a flood zone when a third La Nina has been declared?

The point of housing those families in Goonellabah or Lismore Heights, of which there is a few, is a sound solution and one that Resilience NSW should surely investigate.

Cr Peter Colby voted against and said, "We need to get control of the agenda, we need to get control of Resilience NSW and tell them what we expect out of them not what they need just to deliver the goods. They don't have engagement with the community. They don't have to go two streets down from Hepburn Park and talk to people there who have got boys and girls who are looking for stability."

Cr Big Rob said there was land everywhere in the Lismore LGA, "With people that own that land that some councillors here accused of land banking, they've been putting their hand up. So use our land. None of it's been put to us."

"So, if we keep bringing this back, then Resilience is going to wait for us to decide this one, then next month we'll decide again, and then next month, it's the same again. Let me tell you if this gets up because of the motion after this, I'll put a rescission motion on that to bring it back next month. So we're going to be here doing this for months to come."

Earlier, in the public sessions, Cr Rob asked a question, "Are you aware it would take five months to build the new 40-unit village at Hepburn Park?"

If the revised Hepburn Park plan was discussed among councillors, tabled and voted for back in July the pod village would now be near completion.

The longer our councillors say no to Hepburn Park, the more pressure they try and put on Resilience NSW to come up with alternative solutions that then need to be developed for another five months, the longer our flood-affected residents living in sub-standard housing conditions have to endure their same environment while losing faith in all levels of government who have failed them.

They don't want to hear whose to blame and why, they want homes to live in sooner rather than later.

When the house buybacks start to trickle through in February 2023, we shouldn't be surprised when people take the money and leave town for all the reasons outlined above.