The disabled, elderly and mostly poor residents of an assisted-living center in Queens spent four miserable months in shelters after Hurricane Sandy, and now they’re getting hammered again — by the federal government.
The residents of Belle Harbor Manor in Rockaway Park recently got notices from the Federal Emergency Management Agency saying they were being retroactively declared ineligible for aid funds they received two years ago in the storm’s aftermath.
The problem, the letters said, was that the money, the letters said, was supposed to have been spent on temporary housing, but there was no need for it because the residents were put in state-funded emergency shelters.
FEMA gave resident Robert Rosenberg, 61, until Nov. 15 to send a refund check for $ 2,486 or file an appeal.
“We’re on a fixed income. I don’t have that kind of money!” said Rosenberg, who suffers from a spinal disability and other chronic health woes.
He said FEMA workers who urged him to apply for aid never told him the funds could be used only for housing.
Robert RosenbergPhoto: AP
“Everyone asked, ‘Do we have to pay this back later on? Is it a loan?’ They said, ‘No. It’s a gift from Obama,’ ” he said.
“If I wasn’t eligible, then why give it to me in the first place? They knew we were living in an adult home. They knew our shelter was being paid for by the state. It’s not like we lied on the application.”
He said he spent the money long ago on food and clothing, both of which were in short supply after storm waters surged through the facility.
The demand letters are part of a broader FEMA effort to recover millions of dollars in aid payments that went to ineligible households, either because of errors, a misunderstanding of the rules or outright fraud.
The Associated Press reported in September that FEMA was scrutinizing 4,500 households it suspected had received improper payments. At that time, 850 had been asked to return a collective $ 5.8 million. The other cases were still under review.
The AP on Tuesday asked for updated numbers on the number of storm victims who had been asked to return money, but FEMA didn’t immediately provide them.
Data obtained through a previous public records request, however, showed that as of July 30, the agency was considering a recoupment action against 35 residents of assisted living facilities in the same part of Queens that is home to Belle Harbor Manor. All together, manor residents got $ 108,598.
After their chaotic evacuation, Belle Harbor Manor residents were initially taken to a huge evacuation center set up inside a Brooklyn armory, then spent a brief period sleeping four-to-a-room at a hotel in a crime-plagued neighborhood where they were advised not to go outside after dark.
The state then moved the residents, many of whom suffer from mild mental illnesses, to a halfway house on the grounds of a partly-abandoned psychiatric hospital in Queens, where they bunked on cots and were barred from having visitors in their rooms.
FEMA spokesman Rafael Lemaitre said the agency was required by law to recoup improper payments, but he did not directly address the residents’ situation.
“FEMA remains committed to working with applicants and ensuring they have an understanding of the options available to resolve their debt, which includes making a payment, filling an appeal, requesting a compromise and establishing a payment plan,” he said.
More common types of FEMA recoupment actions involve households ineligible for assistance because their damaged properties were vacation homes or rental properties, or families that received extra payments because more than one household member had applied for assistance. FEMA also commonly recoups emergency aid payments for damage later covered by insurance.
Lawyers at MFY Legal Services, a legal aid group that has worked with adult-home residents, have offered to help the Belle Harbor Manor residents with their appeals.
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