Sandy home fix plan sees progress, but many quit

FOUR YEARS and $2.7 billion after it was announced, Build It Back is finally making headway in rebuilding homes wrecked by Hurricane Sandy, the city says, with almost three-quarters of construction complete — but some homeowners have nonetheless continued to abandon the program.

“Build It Back and New Yorkers hit hardest by Sandy have more to do — but we’ve turned the corner,” Amy Peterson, the program’s director, said in a statement. “Over the past six months the pace has accelerated dramatically, and more and more families are moving back to new, fortified and sustainable coastal homes and communities.”

As of May 30, the city had finished up work on 3,771 homes, elevating 551 of them and closing out 73% of its cases. That’s a significant boost from the 33% of homes that were completed one year earlier.

But in that same yearlong period, 466 homeowners — or 13% — dropped out of the program.

The dropoff rate continues a longtime trend for Build It Back, which began with more than 20,000 applicants and has seen more than half leave — some because they were ineligible, and others because they were fed up with delays.

Mayor de Blasio had pledged to finish construction in the program, which began under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, by the end of 2016.

“There’s a lot of people that I know that chose not to do it. They don’t want to deal with it,” said Staten Island homeowner Vincent Anastasio. “And believe me, it’s a long haul. It’s long haul.”

Anastasio, 65, and his wife Teresa, of New Dorp Beach in Staten Island, moved into a newly elevated home on Nov. 30, after they’d moved out for construction just over a year earlier.

His home was inundated with water during the storm, destroying the finished basement where his son lived and causing additional damage. He spent $90,000, including insurance money and Small Business Association loans, repairing it, but Build It Back advised him to stop work and consider getting it elevated.

“If we didn’t fix the house, we’d be stuck here for the rest of our lives,” he said. “And we’d never be able to get rid of it.”

That’s because homeowners in flood zones who don’t elevate will face rising flood insurance premiums; Anastasio said his could have gone up from $5,000 to $10,000 annually. After the elevation, it will be nearly nothing — and for that reason, he’s glad he stuck with Build It Back.

“When the time comes, I can sell my house and I don’t have any guilt trips with the person I sell it too,” he said.

Build it Back covered much more than expected for Joy Gill, 51, who lives on the same street as the Anastasios. She fixed the inside of her swamped home with money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and insurance, but contractors left behind a leaky roof and drafty walls.

That’s when she reached out to Build It Back, to see if they could patch things up — and wound up getting an entirely new, elevated house after inspectors found foundation damage.

“I think this was one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever gotten, to be honest,” she said.