No Homes Fully Rebuilt Under NYC Sandy Program

A year and a half after Superstorm Sandy decimated New York City’s coastline, a city-run program that was supposed to rebuild wrecked homes has only begun construction on three houses, and officials say they will need another $1 billion from the federal government in order to help every homeowner in need.

Homeowners who lost everything in the storm are furious with the lack of progress made by the Build-It-Back program, which was created by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg to primarily help New Yorkers repair, rebuild and elevate homes, though some funding was also designated to aid renters and owners of multi-family properties.

The city has already been granted $1.45 billion in federal funding for the program and about 20,000 people have applied for rebuilding and repair assistance. But as of last week, checks had been mailed to just three homeowners — totaling $100,000 — to reimburse them for repair work. And construction has begun on only three homes, none of which have been completely rebuilt.

Emotions ran high at a City Council hearing Monday, where Amy Peterson, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s newly appointed director of housing recovery, was assailed with withering criticism from politicians and homeowners in her first day on the job. Much of the blame for inaction was laid squarely on the Bloomberg administration.

“We have been frustrated and heartbroken at every step of this process,” said Joseph Palmer Doyle, who applied to Build-It-Back and has yet to receive a dime for repair work to his home in the Rockaways. “We are financially ruined.”

Peterson acknowledged that it has taken the city an “unacceptable length of time” to help those in need and said de Blasio’s administration has moved quickly to cut through the red tape since January to get things moving.

Checks amounting to an additional $800,000 are about to be mailed out and more than 3,000 “offer meetings” — during which residents are presented with financial offers — have been held since Jan. 1, compared to just 500 prior to that.

But politicians said it doesn’t matter who created the problem: it must be fixed immediately.

“The problem is, it’s been about 10 months and Build-It-Back hasn’t actually built anything back yet,” said Councilman Jumaane Williams, a Brooklyn Democrat. “This administration may not have made the mess, but this administration has to clean it up.”

This article appeared in print on page 5 of the April 1st, 2014 edition of Hamodia.