Local leaders press Scott on plans for Puerto Ricans
KISSIMMEE — Central Florida officials warned Gov. Rick Scott on Monday the region can’t take in thousands of evacuees from Puerto Rico without making arrangements for long-term housing, medical care and jobs.
“We’re one of the fastestgrowing regions,” Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs said. “We’ve been handling growth. We just can’t handle it in a matter of weeks.”
Scott’s meeting with mayors, commissioners and emergency management officials at the Osceola County Emergency Management Center came days after Florida raised its Emergency Operations Center to Level 2 status, on top of the state of emergency issued Oct. 2.
Already, more than 140,000 Puerto Ricans have arrived in Florida in the wake of widespread damage to the island
from Hurricane Maria in September.
Scott, who said his goal for the meeting was to create greater communication and cooperation between federal, state and local governments, said his staff would work with cities about potential use of trailers for housing and classrooms.
Jacobs and county commission chairmen Brandon Arrington of Osceola and John Horan of Seminole sent a letter Nov. 1 to Wesley Maul, interim director of the state Division of Emergency Management, questioning whether the state and FEMA had a long-term plan for those evacuees.
Orange County has a contract with Heart of Florida United Way to provide short-term housing in about 100 hotel rooms, but that can’t be sustained, Jacobs said.
In response to Jacobs, Scott again stressed he would continue working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide short-term lodging assistance for evacuees but didn’t provide any specifics about permanent housing.
In addition, Jacobs told Scott and Maul, who also attended the meeting, “Even if you bring in housing, schools may not be able to handle it.”
Osceola Schools Superintendent Debra Pace said an additional 1,300 students from Puerto Rico, on top of the 64,000 enrolled when the year began, were “equal for us to two additional elementary schools added to the population.”
Kissimmee Mayor Jose Alvarez said Central Florida has been “lucky” that so many Puerto Ricans have been able to stay with relatives.
“But how long is [a] family going to stay in someone’s house?” Alvarez asked. “I give it five to six months. Then we have a bigger problem on our hands.”
He said he has visited Puerto Rico several times since the hurricane and argued the numbers entering Florida are actually small compared with what would happen if flights and airports were operating regularly.
“There are hundreds of thousands of [people] just sitting there waiting,” he said of the airports. “And when I ask them where they’re going, the first thing they say is ‘I’m going to Kissimmee.’ Or ‘Orlando.’ ”
The plan to relocate Puerto Ricans from shelters to the mainland is still in its very early stages, FEMA Coordinating Officer Willie Nunn said.
Though FEMA announced this month it will offer to move almost 3,000 Puerto Rican residents, Nunn told Scott and local officials only two families have so far agreed and another 30 may come.
Marucci Guzman, executive director of the nonprofit group Latino Leadership, said her group has dealt with families in Central Florida being forced to sleep in cars, telling Jacobs the group provided dinner to a few such families the night before. Jacobs had said the county hadn’t confirmed any cases of evacuee families living in cars.
“Families are calling while they’re still in Puerto Rico, and we’re telling them, ‘Unless you have a house to come to here, please don’t,’ ” Guzman said. “Go to where you have family, if it’s New York, if it’s Philadelphia, if it’s Kentucky. Go to where you have family because you’re not going to be homeless. Right now, you’re not going to get that immediate housing.”
Still, she said of those arriving in Florida: “They’re not leaving. The majority are not going to go. They’re going to be here, and they’re going to be productive members of our community.”
Scott said the state continues to staff operational welcome centers at the Orlando and Miami airports and is working to make it easier for professionals in Puerto Rico to find similar work here.
Asked if he still suggests Puerto Ricans come to Florida, he praised Florida for its jobs and opportunities.
“I always want to promote our state,” he said. “We want to make sure people have the resources they need.”