FIVE YEARS LATER
O SOME New Yorkers whose homes were destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, the phrase Build It Back has come to sound like a perverse taunt. Across the flood zones of Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, hundreds of homeowners are still doing battle with the troubled city program that was created to put them back on their feet quickly and efficiently.
Nearly 20% of the 12,713 families whose homes are enrolled in the program are still waiting for completion of construction or a property buyout five years after the storm surge receded.
That’s more than 2,300 families still waiting.
The cost to taxpayers of Build It Back, which pays contractors to repair stormdamaged homes or simply buys wrecked properties, has ballooned from $1.7 billion to $2.2 billion.
More than 20,000 owners of one- to fourfamily homes originally signed up, but the number dropped to 8,300 as applicants were deemed ineligible or didn’t properly complete paperwork.
Others simply gave up, frustrated by delays and red tape.
As of this week, Build It Back had completed construction or bought out 7,200 of those homeowners. The other 1,100 are still working their way toward the finish line.
The program has failed to live up to expectations for a long time. Mayor de Blasio vowed it would be finished by the end of 2016. That deadline came and went. The mayor promptly shifted blame, declaring the model behind the program, which began under his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, was itself fatally flawed.
Throughout the process, homeowners have provided a long list of complaints, from incompetent contractors picked by the city to bureaucratic arguments over what’s covered and what isn’t.
One of the latest issues affects more than 50 homeowners who had been promised Build It Back would pay for full rebuilds or home elevations. The city then reversed course, saying the homes were no longer eligible and would get limited repairs instead.
City officials pointed to a re-evaluation of eligibility under federal rules, but homeowners and elected officials said they never got a clear explanation for these reversals.
“That’s completely outrageous and unacceptable,” said Councilman Mark Treyger (D-Brooklyn), who chairs the recovery and resiliency committee. “They have their life literally in storage boxes. They moved out of their homes, they got a construction start date, and now we’re being told, ‘Oops, sorry, we made a mistake.’ ”
Joseph Williams, 50, of Howard Beach, Queens, knows all about it.
Williams, a supervisor with the Transit Authority, says the city told him he was eligible to have his house elevated above flood level, in addition to rep floors and a leaky roof. S moved into a rental home ect’s completion. In Apri was longer eligible for the
At first, Williams said, the house wasn’t located That turned out to be inc liams says he was told t praised the home’s value longer met the rule that s to equal at least half the va
“These are people’s live been living in disarray sin we’ve been waiting on the
Catherine Mulholland, the victim of a Build It B says her Breezy Point sin was deemed eligible to be it wasn’t.
Mulholland, a legal ass ble devastation after her h damaged by Sandy in 201 in 2014.
The city said Build It B for the reconstruction afte her homeowner’s insuran she was eligible for an ele her home near the beach f according to the city.
Yet not long after, city course and said she’s in Build It Back didn’t handl
“I have done everythin me to or more,” Mulhollan my home twice now. I do do.”