New York City Advocacy Group Releases Report on Immigrant Communities After Sandy
New York City Advocacy Group Releases Report on Immigrant Communities After Sandy
Organization finds that some immigrants are struggling after Sandy.
A report from an advocacy group says some immigrant New Yorkers impacted by Superstorm Sandy are having a difficult time recovering.
The report released Tuesday by Make the Road New York surveyed immigrants in communities on Staten Island and Long Island. It found that 40 percent of those surveyed said they had sustained economic damage because of the storm.
Some of them have had to leave their homes. Many have had a hard time finding new affordable places to live because of a limited housing market in the wake of the storm.
Sara Cullinane is the group's Sandy relief coordinator. She said that some immigrants really are struggling to find housing.
"People have not been able to have enough money to find an appartment, we're seeing kind of a spike in costs so people are doubling up and tripling up with family members to find a place to live," she said.
Most immigrants had not applied for any kind of aid. The top reason given for that was that they didn't know how. Cullinane said many immigrants without United States citizenship struggle to get help.
"When people are losing their homes, when people are losing their jobs, they don't have the same type of access to assistance that US citizens, that people with lawful immigration status, have here," she said. "The effects have been devastating."
