Puerto Rican families staying in U.S. abruptly lose FEMA funding for housing

Without any notice, families who lost their homes to Hurricane Maria are again faced with the prospect of having nowhere to go.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency had promised to provide living arrangements until Feb. 14, only to reverse course last week and signal that the 36 families will no longer receive Transitional Sheltering Assistance.

The hurricane victims have been living in hotels in Connecticut, but on Thursday, FEMA cut off payments for their hotel rooms, notifying neither the state nor the families themselves.

Instead, the displaced U.S. citizens reportedly discovered they would have to check out by 2 p.m.

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"I cried. I didn't want to be there. I wanted to leave," resident Yahaira Falson told WTIC.

"For FEMA to sit there and say one thing on the phone and then turn around and just stab us in the back like that is very hurtful because they're here to help us. They can't just sit here, bring us here and forget about us."

The Connecticut state government came in to replace the sudden loss of funds, but it was already too late for some.

"A number of families had already been removed from hotels," Gov. Dannel Malloy's Deputy Communications Director Jason Novak told BuzzFeed.

"We got the call hours later and had to then notify these families about what was happening and tell hotel owners not to kick them out."

Malloy has been unguarded in his assessment of how his state's temporary guests have been getting treated by their federal government.

RELATED: When Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico

"All things considered, it is hard to come to any conclusion other than that the federal government sees the United States citizens who inhabit Puerto Rico as second class," Malloy said in a letter to FEMA Administrator Brock Long in which he called on him to fix the "egregious error."

For its part, the agency claims that the majority of the families have homes that have now been deemed "livable," but no explanation was offered as to why their situations weren't considered before their assistance was extended in the first place.

"Upon review of their case files, we found that 24 were ineligible for the (Transitional Shelter Assistance) because after inspection of their dwellings, it was determined they had little or no damage and their utilities were on," FEMA Public Affairs Director William Booher told BuzzFeed.

Regardless, Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin joined Malloy in his criticism of the way the agency went back on its word, saying it "reversed that decision in the most coldhearted and calloused way."

Whether FEMA decides to once again change its mind, Bronin said that families will at least continue to receive assistance from the Constitution State until Feb. 1.