Puerto Ricans in Mass. refuge dumped by FEMA
Hurricane Maria survivors who fled the devastation in Puerto Rico are being dropped by the federal program that was set up to keep a roof over their heads, leaving them scrambling for shelter and praying for help.
Dennis Hernandez, 22, started with her 2-year-old daughter at a shelter in Lynn and then went to a hotel in Canton. She applied for temporary housing to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and was denied after she left a signature line blank. She faxed in her signature but was told an appeal could take a month.
Wendy Castillo, 33, said she applied for temporary shelter when she arrived in Boston with her husband and three kids from San Juan. Her application was initially approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but an extension was denied earlier this month.
A computer at the Residence Inn in Dedham said Luis Sanchez, 48, had been denied a room through the temporary shelter program. He packed up the car a friend gave him and started driving to a shelter in Boston, only for minutes later the hotel to call with news his voucher went through.
By midday yesterday, the lobby of the Residence Inn Marriot had the vibe of a social worker’s office with lines of people.
At the center of the crowd was Jeanette Soto, a 28-year-old evacuee who was born in Boston and moved to Puerto Rico when she was 11. She has stepped in as an informal case worker for people in crisis, spending hours on the phone with FEMA advocating for people’s shelter claims.
“I try to be strong to help other people,” Soto said. “I know they are passing by the same situation as I am. … I lost my car, my job, my personal property.”
Soto fled her damaged home in Campo Rico after the storm, only to be put in a shelter that was overrun with a bacterial infection. A personal care assistant in Puerto Rico for years, Soto saved up for a flight to Boston. She said the people who have come to her for help — many dealing with depression — are scared of being dropped from the housing program.
“When I speak with them I can see in their face. They are scared. They are asking themselves: What is going on? What is going to happen to me? Where will I live? Will I be on the street? What will happen to my kids?” Soto said.
In Massachusetts, FEMA is sheltering 566 Puerto Rican families in hotels. A total of 3,856 families are similarly housed in 42 states, the agency said. More than 10,000 Puerto Ricans have been put up in hotels since the program began.
FEMA recently extended the temporary shelter program to March 20 and added four more disqualifying criteria, such as barring people whose homes in Puerto Rico have utility service and are insufficiently damaged.
“This is a bridge to other longer-term housing solutions,” said FEMA spokesman Daniel Llargues. “FEMA supports disaster survivors in their recovery process with many different housing programs. Survivors are responsible for their own recovery and to actively look for permanent housing solutions.”
Frustration with housing issues four months into the Puerto Rico disaster recovery has prompted comparisons to the generous temporary housing programs offered in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Lauren Piraino, whose group Human Rights Festival is organizing aid in a number of hotels, said “FEMA passed extensions for 7 years for Katrina, but we’re 4 months in and we are not getting extensions.”