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A federal judge Saturday night temporarily barred the government from ending housing assistance to Puerto Ricans currently living on the mainland after being displaced by Hurricane Maria, according to court documents.
U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin has extended the program for a few days, saying the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) can not end the program until Tuesday. The program provides Puerto Rican hurricane survivors with temporary housing in hotels and motels.
FEMA said Saturday that it would extend its 60-day transportation assistance program covering airfare, luggage and pet expenses for Puerto Ricans returning to the island.
According to Latino Justice, the civil rights group that filed a class action lawsuit on Saturday afternoon, 1,744 people will be affected by the extension.
"FEMA is offering airline tickets", said Denise Collazo, chief of staff of a group that works with the evacuees, in a statement of Latino Justice PRLDEF.
Latino Justice said in the statement that Puerto Ricans on the mainland will be left behind homeless when the government terminates the program.
"If this expulsion was to take place, it would do irreparable harm to those who have already suffered so much," said Mr. Collazo in his statement. "Thousands of people have lost their homes, their jobs, their cars, their places to go to school and suffer needlessly. "
" FEMA can end it by activating the Disaster Assistance Program (DHAP) ", e-mail It added a longer term housing assistance program that has not been activated.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren 
Elizabeth Ann WarrenTrump Strikes Dems Pushing to Abolish ICE: "They Will Be Beaten So Badly" Dem Democrats Join National Protests Against Immigration Policies Trump Abolir ICE Becomes DEM Decisive Test PLUS [19659011] (D -Mass.) Friday mocked the failure of FEMA to activate the housing assistance program in the longer term.
"If we do not get that, people are going to be on the street," Warren said in a video posted on his Twitter account on Friday. "And that can not happen."
Tomorrow, thousands of Puerto Rican evacuees will lose federal housing assistance and many will be left homeless. @FEMA refuses to set up the long-term housing program after Katrina & Sandy. And the GOP blocks the legislation that would do it. It's shameful.
– Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) June 29, 2018
A group of Senate Democrats on Friday sent a letter to FEMA asking the agency to prolong sixty-day temporary housing program for evacuees of Hurricane Maria, what she did not do
Puerto Rico is still in shock from Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 storm, and at least electricity.
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