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Ranchers.net

Feb 4, 3:13 AM EST

Katrina evacuees want money from hotel as incentive to move

NEW YORK (AP) -- A group of Hurricane Katrina evacuees staying at a Queens hotel want it to contribute $2,500 to each family as an incentive to move, but the hotel's owners are questioning their obligation to pay.

Charlie King, a lawyer and a Democratic candidate for New York attorney general who was involved in a meeting this week on the proposal between hotel management and community leaders, told The New York Times in Saturday's editions that the money also would help cover costs for families seeking permanent housing.

The owners of the hotel, Radisson J.F.K. Airport, are expected to meet with the families' representatives on Tuesday.

"What the hotel is wondering is why private citizens are coming forward and asking the hotel for things that are FEMA's responsibility," said Marc Leffman, chief executive of Atlanta-based French Quarter Hospitality, which owns the hotel.

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About 30 families remain at the Radisson, the last of about 120 Gulf Coast-area families who arrived there after the hurricane. Their rooms are being paid for by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Many of the families who have left the hotel have relocated to city-managed or permanent housing, or to other hotels in the area.

In January, the Radisson's managers told remaining evacuees that they would need to find new housing by the end of the month because of a scheduled $7 million hotel renovation. That led to a protest in which the Rev. Al Sharpton threatened to boycott the hotel if it forced the evacuees to leave.
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