Mayor Bill de Blasio says home rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy is proceeding far better than it was under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but at a City Hall hearing Thursday, people had different opinions and weren’t afraid to share them. NY1′s Josh Robin filed the following report.
The houses are finally returning, or so say de Blasio officials.
“We have made significant progress on all pathways,” said Amy Peterson of NYC Housing Recovery. “All pathways are on their way now, which is great.”
To hear some still rebuilding, though, all this talk of progress is hot air.
“People say to me, ‘I’d rather put a bullet in my head than deal with this program,’” said John Cori of Friends of Rockaway Beach.
There’s no doubt homes are returning under Build it Back. With none completed January 1, construction has started at nearly 600 homes, with 600 other homeowners getting reimbursement checks. With 14,000 in the system, though, that’s only about 9 percent in all.
What’s the holdup? City Hall often blames the Bloomberg administration. While it may have a point, post-Hurricane Sandy home rebuilding always has required wading through a thicket of insurance and regulations, both federal and local.
“We need to increase our capacity and be able to tell people when everyone’s going to be served,” Peterson said.
Peterson runs Build it Back. To increase that capacity, she said the city is working to hire more contractors, fanning them out by neighborhood. How much that will speed things up is unclear.
“Next year, we need to be working on as many homes as possible, and this contract capacity will allow us to do that, and we’re really excited to get the RFP out the door,” Peterson said.
Several months ago, the de Blasio administration announced it had set goals for post-Hurricane Sandy rebuilding of 500 reimbursement checks and 500 construction starts by Labor Day. Recently, City Hall announced it had exceeded those goals.
Asked if there are new goals, Peterson said none for now. Nor would she project when all 14,000 homeowners will finally be done with Build it back.
The storm’s second anniversary is in fewer than six weeks, a time period some ruefully compare to other projects.
“I’m reminded that it took only one year and 45 days to build the Empire State Building,” said Joseph Barden of Margert Community Corp.
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