GALVESTON — Emily Stieren thought Tuesday would be her last day at the Moody Gardens Hotel, where she’s lived since Hurricane Ike filled her house with 3 feet of floodwater.

Although officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced last week that the transitional housing program would be extended for another month, Stieren was told she didn’t qualify.

She spent hours on the FEMA help line last week trying to find out why.

It wasn’t until Monday afternoon that she learned, from the hotel’s front desk, not FEMA, that the government would pay for her room for another two weeks.

The government’s hotel voucher program, originally set to end Tuesday, is extended until Nov. 30. But not everyone is getting to stay on.

Many Ineligible

The hotel voucher program was originally supposed to end Oct. 11. Federal officials extended that deadline to Oct. 28 and then again for another 33 days.

On Oct. 21, 912 people were staying in hotels in Galveston County and the surrounding areas. But only 399 county residents were qualified to continue their stay past Tuesday.

Some of the people who had to check out of their rooms Tuesday weren’t eligible for hotel vouchers in the first place, said Barb Sturner, a FEMA spokeswoman in Galveston.

Although they were initially approved for assistance because they lived in the disaster zone, many lost their eligibility because they were living with someone else before the storm, Sturner said. Long-term FEMA assistance applies only to people who were paying rent or making mortgage payments before the disaster.

Others kicked out of their hotel rooms on Tuesday might have a problem with their FEMA applications, something they could fix by calling the help line or visiting the disaster recovery center at 4700 Broadway, Sturner said.

Stieren, a student in the M.D./Ph.D. program at the University of Texas Medical Branch, spent most of last week on the phone or standing in line, trying to find out why she hadn’t qualified for any further assistance.

Although she finally did get an answer Friday, after Sturner stepped in to help, Stieren said she has decided the agency’s policy is to wear people down until they give up.

That’s what most people are doing, she said.

Rental Assistance

Like many others, Stieren qualified for rental assistance, another reason why some people staying in hotels did not have their vouchers extended, Sturner said.

The rent money will allow people to find better interim housing, Sturner said.

But the $1,400 that is supposed to cover two months of rent is not much help to homeowners who still have mortgage payments to make, Stieren said.

Apartments that can be rented month-by-month are impossible to find, she said.

And with no guarantee that she’ll get any more help after the two months are up, Stieren doesn’t want to risk signing a six-month lease, if she could even find one that short.

Stieren’s contractor estimates she could be back in her house in two months, which would leave her stuck paying for another four months of rent on top of her mortgage.

“I understand that they want people in rental property,” she said. “That’s appropriate if you were renting before the storm, but if you have a mortgage, it’s not appropriate.”

Sturner said she understood Stieren’s dilemma but didn’t really know how to fix it, especially since it wasn’t really the government’s problem to fix, she said.

The Last Minute

Although Stieren has been approved for rental assistance, she has not received her money because of problems with her application. That’s likely why she was granted an extension for her hotel voucher, said Sturner, who described Stieren’s situation as interesting and not the norm.

But Stieren disagreed, saying a lot of people she talked to were having the same problems with the federal agency.

When she registered for assistance on Sept. 13, she thought the federal government would come and save everyone battered by Hurricane Ike, Stieren said.

The last month, filled with frustration and uncertainty, has been disappointing, she said.

“I’ve just accepted that they’re going to wait until the very last minute,” she said

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FEMA Help Line

•800-621-FEMA