A Kalamazoo nonprofit says residents who saw serious damage to their homes in last month’s floods are struggling to get assistance. The city says that some of its housing dollars come with federal restrictions that prohibit their use in flood zones.
Sam Field is with Community Homeworks, a group that helps low-income individuals to stay in their homes. Field says a number of houses in Kalamazoo had catastrophic flooding in February. He told the Kalamazoo City Commission that the houses are not safe to live in.
“These people are getting sick. They’re living in houses that they’re heating with space heaters. Some people that we’re helping, they’re heating their houses with their stoves, with candles. It’s a very large problem,” Field said.
He added that those residents have no other choice but to stay in their homes until they get help from the government.
Assistant City Manager Laura Lam says that some of the housing-rehabilitation dollars that the city receives from the federal government cannot be used in flood zones. Lam says the city is looking into alternative sources of funds, and that it is working with several nonprofits to assist people whose houses flooded.
