FLORIDA — The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be extending all Transitional Sheltering Assistance Program (TSA) housing vouchers through the end of June for displaced Puerto Ricans, says Darren Soto.
In a tweet on Thursday afternoon, the U.S. representative for Orange, Osceola and Polk counties stated that FEMA will not only extend the housing vouchers through Saturday, June 30 of this year, but it will pay for flights back to Puerto Rico and resettlement on the island will be eligible.
Many Puerto Rican families, who were displaced by Hurricane Maria and now live in Central Florida and throughout the state, have struggled to keep assistance.
Earlier last month, the agency was going to end housing assistance, but at the last minute, there was a reprieve from FEMA for displaced Puerto Ricans living in Florida who faced eviction from hotel rooms and extended housing assistance for everyone through mid-May.
The TSA program, which paid families to temporarily stay in hotels, was scheduled to end Friday, April 18, for a large portion of evacuees but was extended for all until at least May 14, the agency stated.
Community reacts to extension
Puerto Rican families living in Central Florida celebrated the news. The extension comes as a huge relief for families who still don’t have a permanent place to live.
“I feel happy, content that they extended, because now I have more time to look for housing,” said David Olmeda, an evacuee from Puerto Rico.
However, those working to help Puerto Rican families spoke about the work ahead.
“If these families will not be given transition assistance, those who already found jobs are going to get caught in a cycle of paying for hotel rooms that they can’t get out of,” said Father Jose Rodriguez of Iglesias Episcopal Jesus De Nazaret Church.
With rents as high as over $1,000 a month at hotels in Kissimmee, Father Rodriguez said now the hope is to get everyone out and into permanent housing in the next two months. It’s a daunting task, but one he says everyone is determined to fight for.