FEMA Cuts Off Paying for Rooms

WRAL.com About 12,000 families made homeless by last year's hurricanes began checking out of their federally funded hotel rooms around the country Monday after a federal judge let FEMA stop paying directly for their stays. [snip] Earlier in the day, attorneys for the evacuees pleaded with U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval for a last-minute reprieve, saying the rent assistance will not be enough for decent living accommodations or continued hotel stays. "These people are going to be homeless. We've heard from a lot of people who are going to be sleeping in their cars," said Bill Quigley, a lawyer for the evacuees. But Duval denied the request. [snip] At a meeting of state emergency managers in Alexandria, Va., acting FEMA chief R. David Paulison told reporters the judge's ruling "recognized that we're doing the right thing for these people." "We have caseworkers down there and most people have already received rental assistance," Paulison said. "I just gave approval to purchase 10,000 more travel trailers. We're working also with some of the apartment owners to rehab some of the apartments down there. We are going to make sure that people are taken care of. But the judge recognized that, and recognized that the right thing to do is to get them out of hotels and into some decent housing." Monday marks the second wave of evacuees losing FEMA financing of their hotel rooms. Last week, the occupants of roughly 4,500 rooms lost FEMA funding after failing to ask the agency for extensions. It's not like these people didn't see it coming. They where suppose to be out in December and then in January. But nope they stayed hopeing that the Fed would continue to use our tax money to house them. I'm sure this isn't over. Boortz's response" Now they've adopted the very same lifestyle they were living in New Orleans ... one of dependency and plunder. They see these hotel rooms as a right, not as a temporary act of charity. Those evacuees with a sense of personal responsibility and self-sufficiency left their free hotel rooms long ago. What we have left, by and large, are those who have no desire or intent to work their own way out of this situation. Expect howls of anguish and outrage from various liberal groups as these ticks are plucked over the next few weeks.