Nearly 16 months after it was announced, and nearly two years after the devastating floods that prompted it, the first major project to be delivered under the $100 million Resilient Lands Program has been announced.
The Southern Cross University (SCU), government agency Landcom and the New South Wales Reconstruction Authority have signed a Heads of Agreement to deliver more than 400 dwellings in East Lismore.
"This is hope. This is progress," said NSW Premier Chris Minns after announcing the project in Lismore on Friday.
"This is not the final destination. It doesn't make Lismore whole.
"[But] there is hope and there is opportunity for those communities that were smashed as a result of those terrible floods."
SCU has made 72 hectares of university land available for the development, with at least 20 per cent of the dwellings to be set aside for affordable housing.
The development will include a mix of low and medium-density housing, and low-rise multi-dwellings.
A number of serviced lots will also be made suitable for the relocation of existing homes from flood-affected areas.
Government-owned developer Landcom will invest $60 million to provide the infrastructure for development, such as new roads, power, water and sewerage connections.
An additional $15 million from the NSW Reconstruction Authority will enable those who received buy-back offers under the Resilient Homes Program to be given priority access to purchase the new land and housing before it is offered to the broader market.
'Cold comfort' for some
But the land is not expected to come onto the market until 2026.
"After we can get this one through, we know the pathway through the maze," Mr Minns said.
"Now that's cold comfort for people that have been waiting, but this is progress."
About 700 buy-back offers have so far been approved for flood-affected properties across the Northern Rivers, and nearly 500 have been accepted.
State Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin said those people would be allowed to live in their homes while they waited for land to become available.
"We have the licence to occupy now, so that they can stay put for that time," she said.
"So that gives them time to work out what they're doing ... and that will help a lot."
'Far too slow to be relevant'
Federal Member for Page Kevin Hogan said the development had come too late for many flood survivors.
"To relate this back to the disaster is a furphy, because who is going to wait four years to move into a house if they have been flood affected?" he said.
"As we know people have either moved … [or] sold their house and bought another one, sometimes around the corner from where they were.
"This has been far too slow to be relevant to those who are flood-affected."
South Lismore woman Jo Groves, whose home was damaged in the floods, contacted ABC North Coast to vent her frustration in a text message.
"I was expecting that they had spent this last two years putting a package and plan together so that those affected by the flood who had managed to hang in here this long could begin to move our houses now, this year," she said.
"I'm both bitterly disappointed and horrified that the government thinks that this is an acceptable response to the flood disaster of nearly two years ago and the ensuing housing crisis in our community.
"I understand that there also needs to be a longer-term answer and sure, two years seems reasonable for that, but where is the help for those … who've been hanging on so that they can stay in their community?
"It's too late for most of us."