Judge Orders to Extend Housing for Puerto Rican Evacuees

A judge has ordered federal emergency officials to extend vouchers for temporary hotel housing for Puerto Rican hurricane evacuees.

Saturday night's decision comes after a civil rights group sought a federal injunction to block the eviction of nearly 1,700 Puerto Ricans from hotels across the country as the assistance vouchers they received are set to expire.

LatinoJustice PRLDEF filed a lawsuit Saturday seeking relief for the Puerto Ricans, whose federal housing assistance vouchers were set to expire in hours, meaning the Hurricane Maria refugees could be evicted.

U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin wrote that ending the program could cause irreparable harm to the plaintiffs.

FEMA declined to comment, but the Orlando Sentinel reports the agency confirmed it was working to notify hotels to extend the aid until July 5 to comply with the order.

This story has been corrected to show that the Puerto Rican evacuees are in hotels across the U.S., not just Florida.