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(CNN) – Nearly 1,800 Puerto Ricans who survived Hurricane Maria will be forced to leave Sunday hotels in the island and the mainland of the United States where they could live for free through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. 19659002] "After 10 months of emergency shelter through transitional housing assistance (ATS), FEMA ends the program on June 30 for hurricane survivors Harvey, Irma and Maria" , the agency said in a statement. "Aimed at providing emergency shelter, TSA is a temporary solution that connects survivors into more permanent options."
Designed to be used for about two weeks, the program has been expanded several times. FEMA spent more than $ 432 million on sheltering tens of thousands of hurricane survivors who had no electricity or running water, homes that were damaged or destroyed, or schools for their children. "We had the trauma of leaving the house and spending months in a small room in New York," said Liz Cruz, who has been staying in a Manhattan hotel with her husband and three children since the beginning of December. . .
"Nowhere to go"
In New York, authorities this week estimated that between 600 and 700 Puerto Ricans who have fled the island will find themselves in shelters for families without families. shelter in the next few days.
"The Trump administration has abandoned the people of Puerto Rico," said Jaclyn Rothenberg, a spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio
"Our mayor will not do it.We will shelter our fellow Americans and we will do everything possible to help them get back on their feet. "
From New York to Florida, where the authorities estimate that some 400 families will lose hotel vouchers this weekend, the evacuees are preparing makeshift meals in the microwaves, do their homework in the halls of hotels and learn to know the lifestyles of the metropolis.
"They have nowhere to go," Democratic Senator Bill Nelson said Thursday. ground. "This decision to stop providing help to these families has scared many people, they are struggling to try to figure out what they will do to find an affordable place. Nelson, who failed in a last-minute attempt to extend Transitional Shelter Assistance housing for hurricane survivors on Thursday, said that many families will end up sleeping in cars or cars. Shelters for homeless people Sunday,
"Some of them have lost everything because of these storms," said Nelson. "Too many people are still unable to find work or find housing affordable. … For many of them, the only thing they have is the help that FEMA provides. "
" Mami, are we going to be safe? "
Nearly 1,800 Puerto Rican families were registered in hotels under FEMA This week, the spokesman for the agency, Juan Rosado-Reynés, said: "We continue to work closely with survivors of the disaster, according to FEMA estimates, [1]
. According to the FEMA statement, at the end of January, four months after the devastating September storm, more than 3,000 Puerto Rican displaced people were living in hotels in 40 cities. States, according to FEMA. Their eligibility for transitional housing was reassessed every 30 days. The agency said the program was intended to provide emergency housing immediately after a disaster.
Participants were not eligible for FEMA hotel checks if their accommodation in Puerto Rico was livable after inspection, or if FEMA had found other viable housing options, such as friends with whom they could live, among other things, according to agency officials.
In New York, the authorities said that 108 families who will lose their FEMA housing assistance on Saturday will be connected "via Catholic Charities … Average housing, social services and educational aids." The average household includes three people
134 other Puerto Rican families who are not eligible for FEMA assistance apply for shelter from the Homelessness Department of the city. is not our first favorite option, but that's what we can offer, "said Rothenberg, spokeswoman for the town hall." I hope that if these people go through the process, they will eligible to get back on their feet here in New York. The mayor will not leave these people behind.
Milagros Bosse, a 32-year-old Marine Corps veteran who arrived in New York City in December with four young children, departed a Manhattan hotel on Friday and planned to relocate to a former boutique hotel. now used as a shelter for homeless families.
"Children ask," Now, are we going somewhere else? Said Bosse, who supported his family in unemployment benefits. exhausted at the end of next month. "They keep asking" Mami, are we going to be safe? Are we going to have a refrigerator?
She said that she has received many calls and emails from FEMA reminding her that the agency will not pay for the hotel after Saturday.
"I'm at the point where everything I want to do, it's crying," she says. "I can not. I have four angels who look at me every day and ask me: "Mami, are we okay?" With an impassive face, I look at them and tell them that everything will be fine. I have tears in my eyes, but I can not collapse because of them.
When they arrived at the former boutique hotel that now hosts homeless families, Bosse said that no room was available. They were taken to the Times Square Hotel, where she said the walls were dirty. There was a hole in the wall of a bathroom.
She finally broke down
"The kids and I cried," says Bosse. "They begged me to go back to the FEMA hotel, that they behave better … and I had to look in the eye and say, 'I'm sorry but we do not can not go back because our help to FEMA is over. "
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