Lawmakers to FEMA: no claw backs!

Local and federal officials recently called on the Federal Emergency Management Agency to waive millions of dollars in disaster relief funding that the agency has ordered Hurricane Sandy victims to pay back.

FEMA is looking to recoup $6.79 million from nearly 1,000 local homeowners, claiming that they were mistakenly overpaid, and sent out demand letters late last year to storm victims stating that they had received duplicate or erroneous payments.

At a press conference in the West End on June 19 with local officials and residents, U.S. Reps. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City) and Gregory Meeks (D-St. Albans) called on Congress to pass the FEMA Disaster Assistance Reform Act of 2015. The legislation includes provisions that would authorize FEMA to waive such debts in instances where homeowners were overpaid through no fault of their own, and not because of fraud or misrepresentation. Meeks said that a similar bill had expired in 2010.

In New York’s fourth congressional district, which Rice represents, FEMA is seeking to recoup more than $1.5 million from residents in Long Beach alone, more than $600,000 from residents in Freeport, and more than $555,000 from residents in Oceanside. Homeowners who received the notices had 30 days to repay the money before FEMA would start charging interest, and appeals must have been filed within 60 days.

“There are many … who have rebuilt — they used whatever assistance money they got, combined that with savings, took out loans, and they found a way to cut through the red tape and rebuild everything that they had lost,” Rice said. “They came home ready to return to their normal lives and put Sandy behind them. And then the letters came — years after the storm — saying FEMA paid them too much money.”

The press conference was held in front of the home of Elizabeth Treston, a Long Beach resident who was told — on the two-year anniversary of the storm — that she owed FEMA $4,500. Treston was told that she would be reported to the IRS or a collection agency if she failed to pay, Rice said. Treston’s appeal was denied and she was forced to repay the funds.