Leaders creating aid center for displaced Puerto Ricans
With 3,000 displaced Puerto Ricans expected to arrive in Fort Lauderdale as soon as Tuesday, Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs announced late Friday that she’s working on a one-stop relief center for future waves of Hurricane Maria victims relocating to Central Florida.
“We’re going to do the same model that we did for Pulse,” she said, referring to the Orlando United Assistance Center initially set up at Camping World Stadium for survivors of the June 2016 nightclub massacre. “We’re already working with Osceola on it.”
The mayor made her remarks at a community meeting led by the Heart of Florida United Way to help coordinate Central Florida’s response to the devastating hurricane. With the island’s food, water and power supply in shambles, tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans are expected to resettle in the Orlando-Kissimmee area.
Jeff Hayward, local United Way president and CEO, said his agency has close ties to its counterpart in Puerto Rico — Fondos Unidos — and is already working to send water-filtration devices and solar-powered lights and chargers to the island. The United Way managed the Orlando United Assistance Center and, he said, is prepared to do similar work for a reception center for hurricane victims. The center would offer aid and information on food stamps, medical care, housing, jobs and other services.
“Orlando is home to one of the largest Puerto Rican populations after the country itself,” Hayward said. “We have an obligation to our community whose families, friends and loved ones have been so deeply impacted.”
Meanwhile, state Democrats, including Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith of Orlando, called on Gov. Rick Scott to create four relief centers for migrating Puerto Ricans — in Orange, Osceola, Broward and Miami-Dade, the places expected to see the greatest influx.
“It’s crucial that people coming here have a place to learn how to enroll their children in school, how to find employment options, how to continue their professions and how to get help,” Smith said.