随着飓风伊恩在佛罗里达登陆周三,马萨诸塞州参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦。美国广播公司新闻独家获得的一封信显示,奥巴马和纽约州众议员阿德里亚诺·埃斯帕莱特(Adriano Espaillat)向拜登政府施压,要求提供一项拖延已久的住房计划的细节,他们说该计划旨在在这个飓风季节启动,以帮助因灾害而流离失所的低收入人群。
灾难援助和支持性住房计划(Disaster Assistance and supporting Housing program,简称DASH)本应在2022年3月前启动,目标是为因飓风、野火或其他灾难而失去家园的人提供住房补贴,并在灾后寻找新住房方面提供长期援助。
但该计划尚未启动,沃伦和埃斯帕莱特在给机构领导的一封信中写道,要求更新。
“我们担心,尽管[联邦紧急事务管理局]和[住房和城市发展部]打算在2022年大西洋飓风季节实施该计划,预计将产生超出正常水平的风暴活动,但计划的实施似乎已经停滞,”沃伦和埃斯帕莱特写道。
当被问及该计划的延迟和推出的时间表时,联邦应急管理局发言人朱慧珊·罗森伯格说,该机构正在“审查信件”
沃伦和埃斯帕莱特要求联邦应急管理局和住房与城市发展部在10月中旬提供最新情况。
“年复一年,我们被飓风、洪水和其他自然灾害摧毁,年复一年,我们对满足受影响社区的需求准备不足,”沃伦在给美国广播公司新闻的一份声明中说。
“当我们开始2022年飓风季节时,我敦促联邦应急管理局和住房与城市发展部迅速行动,实施DASH计划,以便没有家庭,无论他们的收入如何,在现有的救灾计划中出现服务缺口。”
沃伦和埃斯帕莱特说,新的住房计划被住房倡导者视为“必不可少的”,他们说联邦应急管理局的现有计划“让低收入幸存者变得脆弱”
就在上周,飓风菲奥娜使整个波多黎各岛断电,并造成至少四人死亡,更多人可能因风暴的间接影响而丧生。这场灾难表明,五年前袭击该岛的“玛丽亚”飓风仍然需要救援。
“我们生活在一个我们的社区在自然灾害袭击时准备不足的时代,就像我们最近目睹的飓风菲奥娜一样——这是完全不可接受的,”埃斯帕莱特在给美国广播公司新闻的一份声明中说。
沃伦和埃斯帕莱特在信中还认为,其他有色人种社区在未来将成为更多与气候变化相关的自然灾害的受害者,政府援助可以减轻这些影响。
他们写道:“鉴于气候变化正在导致自然灾害数量迅速增加,对低收入有色人种社区造成不成比例的影响,我们担心延迟激活DASH将导致边缘化社区遭受更多伤害和更慢的恢复速度。”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren calls out stalled housing program aimed to help hurricane survivors
With Hurricane Ian making landfall in Florida on Wednesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D- Mass., and Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., pressed the Biden administration for details about a much-delayed housing program that they said was intended to be up-and-running by this hurricane season to help low-income people displaced by disasters, a letter obtained exclusively by ABC News shows.
The Disaster Assistance and Supportive Housing program, or DASH, was supposed to launch by March 2022 with the goal of subsidizing housing for people who lose their homes to hurricanes, wildfires or other disasters, and giving longer-term assistance in finding new housing in the aftermath.
But the program has yet to launch, Warren and Espaillat wrote in a letter to agency leaders, requesting an update.
"We are concerned that despite [Federal Emergency Management Agency] and [the Department of Housing and Urban Development]'s intention of making the program available for the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season, which is expected to produce above-normal storm activity, program implementation appears to have stalled," Warren and Espaillat wrote.
Asked about the program's delays and a timeline for the rollout, FEMA spokesperson Jaclyn Rothenberg said the agency was "reviewing the letter."
Warren and Espaillat called for an update from FEMA and HUD by mid-October.
"Year after year we are devastated by hurricanes, floods, and other natural disasters and year after year we are ill-prepared to meet the needs of the affected communities," Warren said in a statement to ABC News.
"As we begin the 2022 hurricane season, I am urging FEMA and HUD to act quickly to implement the DASH program so that no families, no matter their income, fall through service gaps in existing disaster relief programs."
Warren and Espaillat said the new housing program has been deemed "essential" by housing advocates who say FEMA's existing programs have " left low-income survivors vulnerable."
Just last week, Hurricane Fiona left the entire island of Puerto Rico without power and killed at least four people, with more potentially killed by indirect effects of the storm. The devastation showed the remaining need for hurricane relief leftover from Hurricane Maria, which hit the island five years ago.
"We are living in a time where our communities are under-prepared when natural disasters strike as we recently witnessed with Hurricane Fiona—and this is completely unacceptable," Espaillat said in a statement to ABC News.
Warren and Espaillat also argued in the letter that other communities of color would become victims of more climate change-related natural disasters in the future, and that government assistance could alleviate the effects.
"Given that climate change is resulting in a rapidly increasing number of natural disasters, which disproportionately impact low-income communities of color, we are concerned that the delay in activating DASH will result in more harm and slower recoveries for marginalized communities," they wrote.