FEMA extends hotel deadline just as some families begin moving
Orlando Sentinel
ORLANDO, Fla.—FEMA granted an 11th-hour, shortterm reprieve to hundreds of displaced Puerto Ricans facing eviction from their government-financed hotel rooms in Central Florida on Friday, but elected officials and community leaders blasted the agency for causing confusion and panic by the way it has handled the matter.
“It doesn’t make sense,” U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said following a meeting with affected families and local leaders in Kissimmee. “I think FEMA is under an illusion that all of the homes are suddenly habitable again back on the island, which they’re not. And even if they are, there are no jobs… I am criticizing FEMA for this startstop, herky-jerky approach” to helping the evacuees.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has previously extended its hotel voucher program— officially called Transitional Shelter Assistance, or TSA—three times. And Friday’s announcement that 1,700 families and individuals nationwide now relying on the assistance would have until May 14 is still short of what Nelson, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, U.S. Rep. Darren Soto and other lawmakers have sought: an extension until June 30 so children uprooted by the disaster can finish the remainder of the school year uninterrupted.
The government of Puerto Rico made the request on Wednesday, two days before the deadline, asking for an “unconditional extension” and eliminating eligibility requirements previously in place.
Further, because FEMA’s announcement didn’t come until Friday afternoon—the same day the evacuees had been told their hotel assistance would end—some of the 600 affected families in Florida had already moved out.
“First we were hit by Hurricane Maria, and now we feel that we’ve been hit by Hurricane FEMA,” said Marieliza Figueroa, an evacuee packing to leave her hotel room with her two teenage sons Friday morning. “Right now I’m earning $8.25 an hour, which has made it hard for me to find housing. … This is affecting many families, elders, children.”
But a FEMA spokesman provided a statement from the agency saying that its review of those receiving the hotel assistance “have shown that hundreds either have no home damage from Hurricane Maria (or) have voluntarily withdrawn their applications for federal assistance.”
The statement also claimed that FEMA staffers have “gone above and beyond the normal processes” to “ensure survivors are receiving all the assistance available.”
That was news to David Olmeda, 26, who fled Puerto Rico and is now living in a Kissimmee hotel with his wife, Christine Gonzalez, and their 1-year-old son. “They made us wait until the very last minute. I know people who packed up, many people bought plane tickets, and now what are they going to do with those?”
The couple hadn’t yet checked out, mostly because they had nowhere to go. Both have found jobs—she works in housekeeping at a Celebration hotel, and he works the night shift at a Kissimmee Home Depot— but they’re still struggling to save money toward a place of their own.
“FEMA says one thing and then another,” Olmeda added. “What they did was play with our feelings.”
The Rev. Mary Lee Downey, executive director of the Community Hope Center in Kissimmee, said most moderately priced rental units have long waiting lists.
“Honestly, we’re still looking at a three- to four-month wait even if all the stars align,” she said. “I can’t tell you that the May 14 is going to be any different. I can’t tell you that June 30 is going to be any different. This is a long process… and these are families that went through a terrible tragedy, and it’s our responsibility to care for them.”
Worse, some landlords and property managers may be taking advantage of the situation, several officials said, by charging high—and non- refundable— application fees for any vacancies.
“What we’re seeing now is application fees have risen from $30 to $35 for an apartment to $90 or $100,” said the Rev. Jose Nieves, associate pastor of First Kissimmee United Methodist Church, where he leads a bilingual ministry called Casa de Paz. “And then they’re creating waiting lists and charging people monthly fees to stay on the list.”
Those fees can run $50 to $100 a month, Nieves said.
Even before Maria struck in September, Central Florida had one of the most severe affordable housing shortages in the nation, he noted.
The crunch from hurricane evacuees has only exacerbated the problem.
But Kissimmee Mayor Jose Alvarez said FEMA could have offered longterm rental assistance to the evacuees—instead of the short-term hotel stays— that would have made the recovery process far easier.
“It was done for Katrina, and it worked very well,” Alvarez said. “The governor of Puerto Rico asked (FEMA), but FEMA never approved it… At the beginning, when we asked for it, if they would have listened, we wouldn’t have to worry about getting vouchers and extensions. But they dragged their feet.”