Aid for temporary sheltering in hotels will run out for some starting this Friday. Across the country, newly arrived citizens from Puerto Rico, who left their homes due to the damage and post-storm blackouts, have struggled to find housing. In Central Florida alone, more than 300,000 have arrived, challenging municipalities and nonprofits to provide shelter in an already crowded market.
But that challenge may get tougher starting this Friday, February 16, when a FEMA program to temporarily shelter new arrivals in hotels will begin to expire for many of those who migrated a few months ago.
?Evacuees in Florida face a tragic Valentine?s Day if the FEMA program ends and hundreds of families need to leave those hotels,? says Democratic Congressman Darren Soto, a Puerto Rican whose district in central Florida covers areas where many new arrivals have settled. According to federal officials quoted in the New York Times, nearly 4,000 families remain in hotels as part of FEMA?s transitional sheltering assistance program. Roughly 1,500 of those families are in Florida.
With a third of the island still without power, says Soto, he?s pushing FEMA to extend eligibility for the program through the rest of the school year, and help provide additional rental assistance to families. This morning, he released a letter, co-signed by Representatives from both parties, asking FEMA to help the Puerto Rican families who may soon be displaced, and provide direct assistance to those in ...