Residents of the Belle Harbor Manor assisted living center in the city’s Rockaway Peninsula spent four months after Superstorm Sandy moving through a series of emergency shelters due to flooding at the facility.
Now, the Federal Emergency Management Agency wants at least a dozen of those disabled, elderly and mostly poor residents to return thousands of dollars in disaster aid.
The austerity craze has long lasting effects. One of those is to attempt to recoup or cut off monies from the most vulnerable. In this case obviously special needs residents that have medical expenses that go well beyond any disability scheme payments will be expected to pay FEMA back for emergency housing because they were kept in shelters. These residents do not have mobility or the means to seek housing elsewhere. That is why they were in a care facility.