NYC Residents Left Homeless By Sandy Speak Out Days Before Hotel Evictions
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) - New Yorkers who are still homeless nearly a year after superstorm Sandy say they need more time to find shelter before the city evicts them from hotel rooms.
Federal funding for the program ended this week but about 300 people are still sleeping in city-funded hotel rooms that are paid for through Friday.
Several of them held a press conference Wednesday with elected officials to fight for the program's continuation.
NYC Residents Left Homeless By Sandy Speak Out Days Before Hotel Evictions
Desiree Marino, a retired NYPD officer, was flooded out of her home in Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn by Sandy.
She's been living in the Park Central Hotel in Manhattan since the Oct. 29 storm hit.
"We got an eviction notice under the door on Saturday night for 11 a.m. on Friday morning, Oct. 4," she said. "We either can stay there at our own cost at the hotel or we can find, with the letter they provided for us, what shelters that we were allowed to go and travel ourselves with all of our belongings. We're living out of garbage bags."
NYC Residents Left Homeless By Sandy Speak Out Days Before Hotel Evictions
"They should not be putting us out in the street," she said.
Cherelle Manuel said she found a new place to live but needs more time for paperwork to be processed. Manuel and her four children have been living in hotels since the storm flooded their home in Far Rockaway, Queens.
A judge last week sided with city lawyers and lifted an injunction that had protected the housing program.
The city's hotel program has cost the federal government roughly $73 million.
You May Also Be Interested In These Stories
(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
