FEMA Asking Elderly, Disabled NYCers In Assisted-Living Home To Pay Back Thousands In Sandy Relief Funds

Spending months living in emergency shelters after being forced out of your home by Superstorm Sandy’s floodwaters sounds bad enough, but now disabled, elderly and poor adults living in an assisted-living center in New York City have been told by the Federal Emergency Management Agency that some of them have to pay back thousands of dollars they received in disaster aid.

According to the Associated Press, at least a dozen residents of the home on NYC’s Rockaway Peninsula have gotten notices recently from FEMA< saying that they'd been declared ineligible for aid checks that they received two years ago — money that many of them have already spent — because the money was only supposed to pay for temporary housing.

Those residents didn't ever have to pay for housing, as they were moved from one state-funded shelter to another. Yet they're expected to pony up the cash by Nov. 15, cash most of them don't have.

One 61-year-old resident suffering from a spinal disability and other chronic health problems says he has to send a check for $2,486 or file an appeal. He says he spent the money on food and clothing, things he needed after the storm, and was never told he was ineligible.

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