Flood victims wait four years for repairs to homes
Flood-affected residents have been waiting nearly four years to get their homes repaired or even rebuilt due to a severe tradesperson shortage.
Four years after a devastating River Murray flood in South Australia, many homes remain unrepaired, leaving families in limbo. Jamie Bruce, who moved into their Morgan home just 10 months prior, has been sleeping on a fold-out couch ever since floodwaters reached 186 gigalitres a day, washing away their lower level. Despite a national skilled workers shortage of 141,000, Jamie's family took a payout to hire their own tradespeople, but many have failed to show up or keep appointments.
The Bruce family, along with others affected by the flood, feels the cost of rebuilding has increased substantially due to rising material and labour costs. Social policy experts argue that state and federal governments need to invest more in housing resilience and address the tradie shortage to support recovery efforts.
Written by urgent.news from ABC News AU's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
