Hotels In Carolina|"Hundreds Of Storm Evacuees In Hotels Face Evictions"

Source             :    nytimes.com
Category        :    Hotels In Carolina
By                  :    MIREYA NAVARRO
Posted By     :    Hotels Carolina Beach NC

Hotels In Carolina

Almost a year after Hurricane Sandy, hundreds of displaced New Yorkers living in hotels face eviction.Many of them have or are applying for federal rental subsidies, but finding affordable apartments has proved daunting. A few of those still in hotels are homeowners whose houses have not yet been repaired.But saying there is no longer money for hotel stays, lawyers for the city went to court on Tuesday trying to evict the approximately 350 remaining evacuees by Oct. 1 and steer them into homeless shelters. The lawyers said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would end reimbursements to the city for the hotel program on Monday and that the city did not have the money to put up the last evacuees while they look for housing.The hotels in the city program have cost the federal government more than $73 million so far.The prospect of moving to a shelter is unthinkable to evacuees like Nicole Neal, 39, a guest at a Holiday Inn in Brooklyn who said she and her teenage son had been homeless for two and a half years before moving to an apartment in Far Rockaway, Queens, that was left uninhabitable by the storm.

“I’m not going to no more shelters — I’ve been there and done that,” she said, breaking down in sobs during an interview. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t want to think about it.”That hundreds of evacuees remain without permanent housing underscores the slow pace of recovery for many low-income New Yorkers after the storm, from homeowners coping with a lack of flood insurance or inadequate insurance, to renters who were not able to return to their homes and have not been able to find suitable housing.Some housing experts say the long hotel stays point to the need for better federal and local disaster planning so that rental aid is available more quickly and cheaper temporary apartment rentals are an alternative to hotels.A more effective system for connecting people in crisis to housing is also needed, said Rosanne Haggerty, president of Community Solutions, a nonprofit organization working to end homelessness in New York.The city tried to end the hotel program in May after most of the more than 3,000 people in hotels had returned to repaired homes, secured public housing or found other permanent accommodations. City officials attributed the decision to budgetary concerns as well as the declining number of evacuees. The hotel program, officials said at the time, helped avoid the “severe strain” on the city’s shelter system from a sudden influx of evacuees.But lawyers with the Legal Aid Society sued to prevent the hotel evictions and Justice Margaret A. Chan of State Supreme Court in Manhattan sided with them. In her decision last May, Justice Chan said it did not seem reasonable to end the hotel accommodations just as New York was getting the first $2 billion in federal storm recovery aid, including money for rental subsidies.

And even with a rental voucher for a one-bedroom apartment in the $1,300 range in hand, Ms. Neal said that she had found apartments scarce and landlords unwilling to rent to her because they did not want to wait for aid disbursements for background checks, deposits and other typical charges.As they await the next court decision, advocates for storm victims say that the evacuees have been through enough. “It is not like they’re saying ‘We’ll just transfer these people to the shelter system, here’s a room for you,’“ said Judith Goldiner, a lawyer at the Legal Aid Society. “What they’re saying is you can go apply,” she said. “These families have been traumatized,” she said. “What they went through during the storm really impacted their ability to function.” Hundreds of thousands of people affected by Hurricane Sandy came from households with incomes of less than $30,000 a year, applications for government aid showed, and they were left with no home to return to and not enough income to qualify for available apartments.

Some lived in informal arrangements without leases and had difficulties proving their pre-storm addresses. City officials said a small number of people were uncooperative or hard to place because of criminal records and other problems that made them ineligible for whatever housing was available. Some are homeowners unable to move back home. When FEMA’s program in New York State ended last week, one aid recipient, Thomas Reddington, 65, had struck out trying to line up a temporary apartment to be paid for with federal aid. He decided to move into his 2002 VW station wagon with his wife and their dog and to stay close to his neighborhood in Queens. A United States Navy veteran, Mr. Reddington said he was not aware that his homeowner’s insurance had been canceled while he served as a helmsman in the Persian Gulf; he returned a month before Hurricane Sandy. He is now seeking city help repairing the roof of his two-story house in Far Rockaway, Queens, and replacing lost windows and appliances. His plan, he said, is to head south to rent an apartment in a cheaper state and wait out the winter if his house is still not habitable. The couple will stick it out in their car at least until November, he said.

Source:nytimes.com/2013/09/25/nyregion/hundreds-of-storm-evacuees-in-hotels-face-evictions.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0