Why there are no Red Cross shelters in New York City

Via commander_zero

   Typical.

The relief organization isn't permitted to set up shelters in New York City, thanks to a snarl of bureaucracy and red tape. Meanwhile, 20,000 residents remain displaced after Sandy's devastation.

 

What has been conspicuously absent from the areas of New York City hardest hit by Superstorm Sandy are shelters set up by the American Red Cross, an organization that as part of its mission statement provides shelter in times of disaster. The organization states in its shelter operations manual: "When large groups of people are temporarily displaced from their homes, the American Red Cross responds by opening and operating shelters."

 

In the immediate aftermath of the storm, the Red Cross held several emergency training sessions for shelter volunteers (I attended a November 2 session), telling classes that they needed to plan for a three-day stint away from home and be able to lift heavy loads.
 
But that shelter operation never came to pass, and volunteers were told that the Red Cross would not be needing shelter workers. In the meantime, images of New York City's many devastated neighborhoods filled nightly newscasts; and the housing situation for many New Yorkers grew increasingly dire. The city has estimated that between 20,000 and 40,000 residents could be homeless or forced to live in unheated homes with no running water or power. The conditions are particularly deplorable in the high rises that dot the landscape near the waterfront in Brooklyn and Queens. About 5,200 Staten Islanders have applied for FEMA housing, but according to the New York Post only 24 or so have been placed.
 
Criticism has rained down on the Red Cross for not providing places for this mass of displaced people to live, but it seems that the aid organization is not permitted to set up shelters in the city due to a snarl of red tape.

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