Displaced Puerto Ricans face aid loss

Anxiety grows as 10,000 people face end of FEMA housing funds this month

In this Monday, Feb. 26, 2018 photo, 69-year-old retiree Carmen Acosta walks down the corridor of the Boquemar hotel where she has taken refuge for months, after Hurricane Maria ripped the corrugated metal roof of her residence, in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico.(AP Photo/Carlos Giusti)
In this Monday, Feb. 26, 2018 photo, 69-year-old retiree Carmen Acosta walks down the corridor of the Boquemar hotel where she has taken refuge for months, after Hurricane Maria ripped the corrugated metal roof of her residence, in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico.(AP Photo/Carlos Giusti)

Nearly six months after Hurricane Maria struck, almost 10,000 Puerto Ricans scattered across 37 states and the U.S. territory still receive temporary housing assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

That help has been renewed repeatedly, but it's now scheduled to end for everyone March 20. Without financial support, many storm victims say they will have nowhere to go.

"I could end up on the street just as I'm trying to get back on my feet," said Danaliz Pujol, 23, who is staying in a hotel near Orlando, Fla., and earns money by cleaning hotel rooms.

Dozens of Puerto Ricans in interviews expressed similar fears as the deadline looms. Many are poor, living on fixed incomes or getting by in low-wage jobs. They have no relatives who can help or savings to fall back on, and they did not own their homes.

Some struggle to find work because they don't speak English well. Others have children with special medical or educational needs.

"To start all over again is really hard," said Ivette Ramirez, whose home in the Puerto Rican city of Bayamon was flooded by the worst storm to strike the island in decades. The restaurant where she and her husband worked was destroyed. She is now staying in a hotel in Dedham, Mass., with aid from FEMA.

So far, FEMA has provided $113 million in rental assistance to 129,000 people who were in Maria's path across the island. Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello has asked for the deadline to be extended to May 14, and the government says it is reviewing the request.

Nonprofit groups, churches, and state and local governments have also provided temporary housing help and other forms of support to the tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans who fled to the mainland in the aftermath of the Sept. 20 storm.

Several Massachusetts groups helped Maria Reyes when her FEMA hotel assistance ended after two months. She was able to move from one hotel near Boston to another while caring for her 7-year-old grandson.

Her former home in San Juan public housing has been deemed habitable, but she wants to stay on the mainland to get better medical care. She said she doesn't know how long she will be able to stay in the hotel, or where she will go next.

"I can't live like this with a little kid," the 55-year-old said. "I need more time. I need God to hear me."

Noe Casiano went to Florida with his wife and three children, including one born with severe birth defects a day before the storm swept across the island and flooded their apartment in a public housing complex near San Juan.

Their FEMA benefits ended when their home was approved for habitation, but their newborn was getting emergency treatment in St. Petersburg. For a week, they slept all together in the hospital, but they have since moved to a nearby shelter. They still don't want to go back to Puerto Rico, where the family believes their daughter won't get the treatment she needs because medical specialists are scarce on the island after a 10-year economic crisis.

"I have nothing in Puerto Rico. It would be like going to an empty shoebox," the 29-year-old father said, his voice breaking.

For the most part, evacuees try to make themselves at home. At several hotels, they share meals and keep one another company. Some have added personal touches, like a portrait of Jesus that Carmen Acosta leans against a cardboard box at her hotel room in Boqueron in southwestern Puerto Rico.

Ivan Ferreira, a 55-year-old retiree at the same hotel, said he's grateful for the lodging but points out that he could have fixed part of his house for what FEMA has paid for the room.

Jesenia Flores' hotel on the outskirts of Boston initially offered a welcome break from the chaos after the storm. But now it's become tedious.

"The only entertainment I have is my son," said the 19-year-old, who on a recent day was filling out an online job application from the hotel lobby.

Information for this article was contributed by Danica Coto of The Associated Press.

A Section on 03/08/2018

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