Judge: Hurricane Maria Evacuees Must Leave Government-Funded Housing in Two Weeks

More than 2,000 Puerto Rican families who fled Hurricane Maria have been granted two-week extensions on their government-funded stays in hotels and motels—and will then be forced to find their own accommodations, Reuters reports. U.S. District Judge Timothy Hillman granted the two-week extension after an advocacy group, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, argued that the U.S. government should provide housing for all evacuees until they can find temporary or permanent housing situations. Hillman rejected that request, allowing evacuees to stay in their government-funded house until Sept. 14. “While this is the result that I am compelled to find, it is not necessarily the right result,” Hillman wrote in his decision, adding that he couldn’t make the Federal Emergency Management Agency “do that which in a humanitarian and caring world should be done.” This comes after a study indicated that over 2,000 people died as a result of Hurricane Maria—a far cry from the 64 that were announced in a previous count.