On the eve of the first Lismore 'Resilient Homes' session, the Lismore App caught up with the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation (NRRC) CEO David Witherdin to get some detail on how the program works.

In terms of housebacks, house raisings and retrofitting, David explained they are split into four zones with three zones that involve approximately 6000 properties.

There is a Red Zone, an Orange Zone, a Yellow Zone and a Green Zone. Where you, a family member or a friend fits depends on the risk-to-life factor.

"Let's start with the Red Zone people, David said, "They're the places at highest risk."

"It's termed a catastrophic risk so many of them will have suffered serious damage during the flood. They're places that would generally be inundated by what you would call a 20% annual exceedance probability (AEP). You know, many people talk about that as a one-in-five-year event, but sort of a 20% AEP, so that's one of the key criteria which are places that may be eligible for a voluntary purchase."

As an example, Engine Street in South Lismore where multiple homes were pushed off their stumps causing serious structural damage is very likely to be eligible for voluntary purchase.

"When we look across the seven local government areas here in the Northern Rivers," David continues, "Our best assessment is probably 2000 homes that are eligible for that voluntary purchase that are at the very highest risk."

Stepping up from that is a 5% AEP which would equate to a one-in-twenty-year flood event. This is your Orange Zone and is for houses that may be eligible for house raising funding up to $100,000).

"This will depend on the design of the house. If you've got a brick veneer house, you're not going to raise that thing," David said.

"There is a whole lot of other criteria around it. Maybe, a house that is in that zone but it actually suffered catastrophic damage during this event. So, we would need to consider that."

Taking another step moves us to the Yellow Zone. This moves people from a 5% AEP to a 1% AEP or a one-in-a-hundred-year flood.

"These are places that are likely to be eligible for a funded resilient refit. That is your $50,000 funding zone that involves flood hardening like villaboard, raising the wiring, hard floors, filling in wall cavities, all those sort of things."

"In the case of a future flood, you can recover much quicker. This is the program that Brisbane City Council, as you know, supported by the Queensland Reconstruction Authority have run for a number of years. Some of the evidence on the back of the most recent floods is that those places that had been resilient refitted have recovered much, much quicker."

The last zone is the Green Zone which is defined as if your house is under 1% AEP (annual exceedance probability) then you are not entitled to any of the funding.

It is likely that if you are in a Yellow Zone, or even an Orange Zone that you have already completed some work on your home so you could move back in. David Witherdin confirmed that you would still be eligible if you fit the assessment criteria.

When you break the numbers down, the NRRC is predicting about 2000 homes for voluntary purchase, around 2000 for house raising and then a further in excess of 2000 homes for resilient refitting so a total of 6000 homes that make up the $700 million federal and state funding amount.

Another question being asked is, what if I agree and settle on a house buyback price does that mean I can pay the same price for a home in a new development in a flood-free area?

This is the million-dollar question (literally) that is perhaps the NRRC's most difficult as you cannot make everyone happy.

A lot of people purchased houses in South and North Lismore or the CBD because they were cheaper and it was a way to get into the property market. If you purchase a property in flood-free areas of the 2480 postcode, that house would be worth more. It is the simple truth of the housing market.

David Witherdin said this is the most challenging part of this process.

"We will give first preference to those people and try to optimise the price point for them. Our challenge is to try and find some pathways to get the land at the most economical price point and we'll be working with local councils and the Department of Planning to look at density so that we can build social and affordable housing options for people to purchase."

HOUSE RELOCATION

An option that certainly makes moving to flood-free land more affordable is house relocation. This has been a topic of conversation on social media for quite a few months now.

David Witherdin has confirmed this is definitely an option, in fact, it is encouraged as it not only reduces costs but it reduces pressure on building resources for a new home.

"We are in furious agreement that we want to see houses relocated. There's such a shortage of housing stock so to demolish a house, and we've got some wonderful old houses here with beautiful rainforest timbers the likes of which we'll never get again, is a last resort. These houses have recovered pretty well and this isn't their first rodeo. I think where there's a shortage of contractors to build houses and a shortage of materials, that's just a no-brainer."

"So, for anybody that is approved for the voluntary purchase program and they'd like to take their house with them, we'd say, yes, we absolutely support that."

"Anybody who's been eligible for voluntary purchases, had a pre-flood valuation and a payout at that point, then looking at the costs of buying land and relocating the home, it's certainly far, far less than building a new home.

While house relocation is the good news, finding enough skilled workers to cope with the expected capacity of work is another challenge for David and his team.

"We've got the opportunity to stimulate the market capacity because we've got such an extensive programme of work," David explained, "The development and retention of skills here to do that as well so we can go out nationally to find people."

"While we can encourage and facilitate, it is up to individuals to pay for the relocation of their home."

If there is a suitable home for relocation but the owners choose not to then that house will be put on the market to see if anybody else wants to take up the offer.

"Ultimately, if that's not taken up, what we'll look to do is take a real Circular Economy type approach, whereby, we can recycle as much as possible. So, whether it's casement windows or hardwood from a house, we really want to make the most of that. From a sustainability point of view that that makes good sense."

"At the moment, just from a supply of materials from a market dynamics point of view, it makes perfect sense to recycle whatever we can to be repurposed into even the renovation of existing housing stock here. So, I think to demolish your house is the very last option in terms of what we're doing."

TIME-FRAMES

It is unfortunate, but certainly a reality, that the process between agreeing on a price for a voluntary purchase and being able to purchase a new home in a flood-free area will be at least two years, most likely. That is unless people decide to upgrade to a property that is already for sale.

David Witherdin said the number of people that have expressed an interest in developing their land now numbers 184.

Another challenge is to assess the most suitable options, this needs to be done in conjunction with the Lismore City Council (and the other six local councils in the Northern Rivers) and may not be an easy task. You only need to look at trying to find suitable land for emergency accommodation in Lismore as an example.

"We're looking at land under government tenure and certainly all of those development proposals that are currently in the various systems within each local government (area). There may be some quick wins there in terms unlocking those."

"We are just beginning that assessment this week so I think over the next few weeks we'll get a bit of an idea there. We're certainly targeting early in the new year to start developing that land."

"What we're trying to do is prioritise sites that are firstly free of flood risk, have a low bushfire risk, have good access to the road network and most importantly, ready access to critical infrastructure so power, water and sewer, so you're not going to need to do major upgrades to activate them because they're often the things that take time."

"I'd certainly think within 12 months, but if we can do things quicker than that, we absolutely will."

David has two teams working parallel to each other to coordinate the Resilient Homes Program and the Resilient Land Program to deliver housing solutions to people as quickly as possible.

The first Lismore session is at 10am tomorrow for residents to discuss both programs and ask questions of the man in charge of Lismore and the Northern Rivers rebuild.

More to come.