Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Friday 14 September 2018

Puerto Rican evacuees hunt for housing as vouchers expire

By MIKE SCHNEIDER and 540 Puerto Rican evacu-
ALANNA DURKIN RICHER ees are already in the city
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Like shelter system, and 30 other
many Puerto Ricans who families may end up there
fled to the mainland after after their hotel vouchers
Hurricane Maria, Jose San- end.
tiago has been scrambling Massachusetts, the state
to find a place to live. The with the second largest
federal vouchers that pay number of evacuee fami-
for his hotel room near the lies after Florida, will allow
Orlando airport expire at families with children and
checkout time Friday. people with medical con-
He has visited apartment ditions to remain in hotels
complexes, but his name temporarily on the state's
gets put on waiting lists. He dime, said Gina Plata-Nino,
has applied for assistance an attorney with the Cen-
for apartment housing from tral West Justice Center.
the Federal Emergency The state will also provide
Management Agency, but some housing assistance
it won't give him any mon- for certain families to help
ey unless he has a lease. them move into more per-
And he can't sign a lease manent homes, she said.
without money for a depos- In this Monday, Sept. 10, 2018, photo, Idalis Fernandez walks to her hotel room provided by FEMA But more than two dozen
it and first and last months' with her son Adrian, 2, at the Baymont Inn in Kissimmee, Fla. households in Massachu-
rent. Associated Press setts who don't qualify for
Santiago, 40, can afford the state program will be-
to pay only $500 to $800 a challenges and extensions. three times her monthly respond to an email this come homeless Friday, Pla-
month with his job driving As of Tuesday, there were rent. week seeking comment. ta-Nino said.
cars for an auction house. more than 600 families us- "I have nothing in Puerto But the agency has said it U.S. Rep. Darren Soto,
At this point, he's ready to ing the vouchers on the Rico. At least I can stay has provided a variety of whose staffers held of-
just rent a room to put a mainland, with more than here and work," Fernan- housing options for people fice hours at three central
roof over his head. half of those families in dez, 28, said in Spanish as left homeless by Hurricane Florida hotels this week to
"At that amount, it's diffi- Florida. Almost 400 families she held Adrian outside a Maria, which hit Puerto Rico assist evacuees, put the
cult," Santiago, whose tidy were using the vouchers on motel in Orlando's tourist head-on nearly a year ago. blame on President Donald
hotel room has a cooking the island. district. It has also dismissed sug- Trump and a Republican-
range and refrigerator, said The judge's decision is forc- FEMA hasn't done enough gestions that the evacuees dominated Congress that
in Spanish. "It's not impos- ing Idalis Fernandez to split for the evacuees, forcing were being treated differ- did not pass supplemental
sible, but it's very difficult." up her family. Her husband local governments and or- ently from those displaced disaster relief assistance.
The clock began ticking and 2-year-old son, Adri- ganizations to step up, ad- by hurricanes in Texas and "President Trump, to this
late last month for hun- an, are heading back to vocates say. Florida last year. day, has not acknowl-
dreds of Puerto Rican Puerto Rico where family "Now the location (the FEMA said in a court filing edged, not only the lack
evacuees who rely on members can watch the families) chose in a mo- last month that Puerto Rico of resources and slow re-
federal assistance to pay boy and her husband has ment of deep urgency and has received $3.9 billion in sponse time, but the con-
for hotel rooms. A federal a job lined up. She is stay- disaster is affecting their assistance for Hurricane tinued issues in Puerto
judge in Massachusetts set ing in Florida, where she ability to find housing. This Maria, compared with $2.4 Rico," said Soto, a Demo-
Friday as the deadline for has work as a line cook at is exactly what we were try- billion for Texas for Hurri- crat whose district covers
the vouchers to end after Walt Disney World, and ing to avoid," said Natasha cane Harvey and $1.1 bil- a part of metro Orlando. "It
denying an effort to force where the couple's oldest Lycia Ora Bannan, a lawyer lion for Florida for Hurricane didn't have to be this way."
FEMA to continue the pro- son, 11-year-old Alexander, with LatinoJustice PRLDEF, Irma. Trump this week called the
gram. The ruling by U.S. Dis- is doing well in school. which brought the lawsuit In central Florida, the local response to Hurricane Ma-
trict Judge Timothy Hillman, Finding an apartment has against FEMA. United Way is offering up to ria "an incredible, unsung
who expressed anguish been difficult, she said, FEMA, amid preparations $5,000 toward security de- success" and said his ad-
over his decision, ended al- since many rental compa- for Hurricane Florence to posits for some families. In ministration did an "under-
most three months of legal nies require that she earn hit the mid-Atlantic, didn't New York City, more than appreciated great job."q