The Galveston County Daily News

Low-income families hit by Hurricane Ike might be able to get help repairing their homes even though they have been denied.

A federal court in McAllen ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to publish clearer guidelines for determining who qualifies for housing repair funds. The ruling was issued Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Hilda Tagle.

A timeline for the public distribution of the guidelines, which could provide assistance to thousands of Hurricane Ike victims who have been denied help, will be set as early as next week, said Cynthia Martinez, communications director for Texas RioGrande Legal Aid.

The group filed the lawsuit in November against FEMA on behalf of 14 low-income Rio Grande Valley residents affected by Hurricane Dolly, which made landfall in July 2008, and La Union del Pueblo Entero, a nonprofit organization.

In the Rio Grande Valley, 38,000 families applied for disaster aid after Hurricane Dolly, according to a press release issued by the legal group.

“Half of the Rio Grande Valley residents’ applications were rejected, and we started to notice this was a pattern,” Martinez said.

She said people who were low-income clients owned houses that couldn’t withstand Dolly.

“This was FEMA’s way of saying that ‘your roof was already in bad shape, and you didn’t fix it,” Martinez said.

The ruling doesn’t necessarily indicate FEMA will grant hurricane victim’s appeals, but there “will be a standard set to appeal any denial,” she said.