dagblog - Comments for "Sandy refugees say life in tent city feels like prison"

LI officials hunt for housing

artappraiser — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 06:54:04 +0000

In reply to Sandy refugees say life in tent city feels like prison

LI officials hunt for housing amid shortage
By Keith Herbert and Sarah Crichton, Newsday, Nov. 11, 2012

Thousands of LongIslanders have housing assistance money in their pockets but no place to go because hotels and motels are jammed and county officials haven't decided which temporary housing options to pursue.

Two weeks after Sandy ravaged the region, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials say they're awaiting requests for housing from local government.

Options for Nassau and Suffolk include placing mobile homes on storm-scarred properties, creating large temporary communities and moving families into foreclosed properties [....]

Besides hotels, motels and hospitals -- all of which are full -- unused space in nursing homes, unoccupied and undamaged homes, military bases and college campuses will be considered, Eisenstein said. Even cabins at a Baiting Hollow Boy Scout camp are under consideration. [....]

"We receive 6,000 phone calls a day from people looking for a place to stay," said Marc Soblick, 32, general manager of the Best Western Woodbury Inn, one of the FEMA temporary housing sites. "Demand is so high. There's just no availability."

Suffolk director of real estate Jill Rosen-Nikoloff said the county reached an agreement late last week with the Long Island Housing Partnership and federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to use rehabilitated foreclosed homes. Eighteen homes had been identified by Saturday, she said [....]

With Thousands Still in the

artappraiser — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 06:46:18 +0000

In reply to Sandy refugees say life in tent city feels like prison

With Thousands Still in the Dark, Officials Try to Solve the Post-Sandy Housing Crisis

By Margaret Hartman, Daily Intel @ nymag.com, Nov. 12, 2012

The housing situation in areas hit by Hurricane Sandy has become so desperate that some have floated the idea of placing people in an abandoned Staten Island jail, but officials are still trying to find less depressing solutions. The New York Times reports that in the last week city, state, and federal officials have been working to create a clearinghouse that would find vacant apartments for families displaced by the storm. FEMA has already spent $200 million to house 34,000 people from New York and New Jersey in hotels and motels, and would provide rent vouchers for those placed in vacant apartments. The plan is reportedly part of a rebuilding program that President Obama will announce when he visits New York on Thursday. Landlords are receptive to the idea and have been hammering out the legal details with officials, but it will only do so much to solve the housing crisis. The number of vacant units in the city is extremely low, and the $1,800 a month FEMA provides to New Yorkers in rental assistance wouldn't cover many apartments in Manhattan.

Officials are worried that there will be another surge of people seeking housing once those camping out in their homes are driven out by cold weather, and obviously that fact that 150,000 people in New York and New Jersey still have no power isn't helping. The Long Island Power Authority is drawing more ire than any utility in the region, and some lawmakers are saying that it's time for the federal government to step in [....]

Bitter cold inside a disaster

artappraiser — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 06:40:39 +0000

In reply to Sandy refugees say life in tent city feels like prison

Bitter cold inside a disaster shelter
'You could see your breath,' displaced resident says
By Stephen Edelson, Asbury Park Press, Nov 10, 2012

OCEANPORT —. [....]

“Sitting there last night you could see your breath,” said Sotelo. “At (Pine Belt) the Red Cross made an announcement that they were sending us to permanent structures up here that had just been redone, that had washing machines and hot showers and steady electric, and they sent us to tent city. We got (expletive).

“The elections are over and here we are. There were Blackhawk helicopters flying over all day and night. They have heavy equipment moving past the tents all night.”

Welcome to the part of the disaster where people start falling through the cracks [....]

As Sotelo tells it, when it became clear that the residents were less than enamored with their new accommodations Wednesday night and were letting the outside world know about it, officials tried to stop them from taking pictures, turned off the WiFi and said they couldn’t charge their smart phones because there wasn’t enough power.

“My 6-year-old daughter Angie was a premie and has a problem regulating her body temperature,” Sotelo noted. “Until 11 (Wednesday) night they had no medical personnel at all here, not even a nurse. After everyone started complaining and they found out we were contacting the press, they brought people in. Every time we plugged in an iPhone or something, the cops would come and unplug them. Yet when they moved us in they laid out cable on the table and the electricians told us they were setting up charging stations. But suddenly there wasn’t enough power.”

All of this is merely the last straw for a 46-year-old on disability, with two rods and 22 staples in his back.

“The staff at the micro-city are providing for the needs of all the evacuees,” said Nicole Brossoie, spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services. “Each day there is transportation to the pharmacy for prescription medications, if needed. There are ADA (handicapped-accessible) toilets and showers on site. [....]