New aid deadline for Puerto Ricans is July 23

Hundreds of Puerto Rican families displaced by Hurricane Maria will be able to stay in hotels with Federal Emergency Management Agency vouchers until July 23, a federal judge ruled Tuesday morning.

The ruling marked the sixth time the deadline for the Transitional Sheltering Assistance program has been pushed back. The aid was set to expire Saturday, before advocacy groups filed a lawsuit to block it.

Many families that had been staying in hotels have left: FEMA had 1,722 families in 30 states and Puerto Rico at hotels on Saturday. By Monday the number dropped to 420 families in 22 states, through by Tuesday it had risen again, to 952 families in 27 states.

In Florida the number of families in the program went from 585 on Saturday to 146 Monday, then back up to 336, FEMA said.

In his decision Tuesday morning U.S. District Judge Timothy Hillman, who is based in Massachusetts, said he wanted to give attorneys more time to present him with all the relevant information.

Attorneys representing FEMA will have until July 13 to file arguments against the displaced families suing them. Lawyers for the displaced Puerto Ricans will then have until July 18 to offer their response, and Hillman wrote that he expects to make his decision about whether the TSA program should continue by July 23.

Families can stay in the hotel rooms until then, he wrote.

FEMA spokesman William Booher said in a statement that checkout will now be the morning of July 24. He declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Attorney Hector Pineiro, who is representing the displaced families, stressed that the victory was only temporary and the federal government had not had a chance to present its case.