Last month it was reported that the city's "Build It Back" program in response to Hurricane Sandy had built nothing back. The initiative was designed to rapidly help those whose homes were destroyed with federal relief funds. A year and a half after the storm and eight months after the plan was announced, no repairs had been made. Yesterday, Mayor de Blasio announced that he would immediately reallocate $100 million in federal aid to save and revamp the program. "Construction has started, the first checks are on the way, and we are making immediately policy and staff changes to further expedite and streamline the process—so that New Yorkers get the help they need now," de Blasio said in a release.
The mayor also appointed Bill Goldstein as his senior advisory for the recovery and Amy Peterson as the director of the Housing Recovery Office. The HRO's staff will be increased "immediately" by 35% to 105 staffers.
Peterson has been the president of Nontraditional Employment for Women since 2007, and has previously overseen capital construction plans for the city. Goldstein was recently the VP at the MTA's Capital Construction Company.
Initially, federal aid money was given to "priority one" victims, those deemed the neediest, while "priority two" and "priority three" residents, who the Times categorizes as municipal employees and others making modest salaries, have suffered from the bureaucratic crawl.
Noreen Ellis, 52, another resident of the Rockaways, said she had poured $85,000 into her home. Having waited seventeen months since the hurricane swept through, she said she had given up on receiving any financial assistance herself.
She said she was open, however, to the idea that a new mayor could help her neighbors. “I have to say, you forgive, but you never forget,” Ms. Ellis said. “And you have to move forward. Maybe things will be different now.”
She paused, and turned in the direction of Mr. de Blasio’s new recovery team. “I’ll be holding him to task.”
"None of us can go back and fix things done and not done during the last 17 months," Staten Island BP James Oddo said in a statement. "But we can act with a sense of urgency and get people the help they need as quickly as possible."
