Squatting in NSWRA-owned flood-affected homes. It was always a likely issue that was going to raise its head when you have over 324 buyback purchases completed that will only grow as 551 have been approved in the Lismore LGA.

Pine Street in North Lismore is split by Terania Street. The housing under question is to the right, looking at the closed Terania Street bridge.

The Lismore App understands one house owner has decided not to accept a buyback offer, while the others have been completed with NSWRA fencing surrounding the properties. That is except the house at the end of the street where the fencing has been removed by squatters.

When you walk down Pine Street, you can see vans and cars with number plates from Victoria, Tasmania and a rare NSW plate.

The indication is that the people staying are more transient than local. This was confirmed after talking to a few people.

Lorenzo is on a working visa from Italy; he is travelling with a companion in a van. The two worked on the NSW/Victoria border for two months before deciding to head north. Lorenzo and his companion were heading to Byron yesterday, then further north into Queensland.

(The van Lorenzo is travelling and staying in on Pine Street. He and the owner of the car are leaving today)

Ori is from Israel; he is also on a working visa, not having been in the area long.

Through word of mouth, transient people or gypsies, as one person described the group, arrive, usually staying in vans and cars and using the shower facilities in one of the fenced houses.

The house at the end of Pine Street, where the fence was taken down, has people living there on a more permanent basis.

Two young ladies told their story to the Lismore App without wanting to be recorded. They were nervous about some forms of media, although they had spoken to the ABC.

One had been living "in the area" for the last five years. She also said there was someone who had been flood-affected but would not elaborate further.

Their view was that Lismore has a lot of houses sitting vacant that could put a roof over the heads of people who need housing. Basically, the houses are sitting there, and it is a basic human right to utilise the available properties that were built in a flood plain where governments knew it would flood.

When we discussed safety, one said she would like for the RA to explain to them how it is not safe and that she believes she is responsible for her own safety.

The group said they had been in touch with the NSWRA and were expecting the police to visit in the morning but no police had turned up before midday.

The problem for the NSWRA is that word-of-mouth promotion could well spread like a brushfire, leaving their Lismore houses with a great deal more squatters in them.

The Lismore App contacted the NSWRA for comment about the squatting situation and asked when will the NSWRA-owned buyback houses, that will not be relocated or sold for relocation, be demolished?

No response was received at the time of publishing.