| Page 2 of 2 < |
FEMA Ordered to Extend Hotel Stays
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
Ten states--Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Tennessee and Texas--were allowed to apply for extensions up to Jan. 7. On Friday, as the legal challenge was being argued, FEMA announced it would also extend up to Jan. 7, on a case-by-case basis, people in an estimated 2,400 rooms elsewhere.
Neither Godnick nor FEMA spokeswoman Nicol Andrews knew how many of the estimated 125,000 people in hotel rooms have FEMA applications pending. At a hearing Friday, FEMA said 84,470 cases are undecided, and that it could not process them by Jan. 7, Duval said.
Duval noted that one pregnant hotel occupant, Lenora Brantley, said she received a letter dated Dec. 2 telling her she could stay in her hotel room until Jan. 7, then one dated Dec. 5 telling her she would have to leave by Dec. 15.
"It is unimaginable what anxiety and misery these erratic and bizarre vacillations by FEMA have caused these victims, all of whom, for at least one point in time, had the very real fear of being without shelter for Christmas," Duval wrote.
Duval also wrote that FEMA erred when it told some applicants they could not receive aid unless they applied for a Small Business Administration loan.
In two cases, Duval added, FEMA reversed policies challenged by the lawsuit -- ones that automatically denied aid to people who shared an address before the storm and to people who spent an initial three-month, $2,358 stipend on needs other than rent--without broadly notifying the public of the changes.
In each case, Duval pressed FEMA to notify applicants and warned that he would consider imposing deadlines if the agency failed to act.
Lawyers for the U.S. government argued that "citizens have come to think of every problem in the United States as a federal problem and that the federal government is responsible for them," Duval wrote. But, he added, "certainly in this instance, by law and mandate, the federal government is responsible."
