City Provides Updates on Sandy Housing Recovery

Hoping to demonstrate the kind of progress on Superstorm Sandy housing recovery not seen under the Build it Back program, the de Blasio administration released numbers showing that the city is inching its way towards the mayor's goal for construction starts. 

As of today, 61 construction starts have begun, and 254 reimbursement checks totaling roughly $4 million have been disbursed. That is more than ten times as many homes that have broken ground since the appointment of Amy Peterson as the director of the Housing Recovery Office in late March, when only six construction starts had happened and $100,000 in reimbursement checks were handed out. 

Additionally, 10,309 homes have had damage inspections, 4,808 people have had an "option review meeting," while 1,872 people have chosen an option. Another 328 people have had design consultations completed on their new homes.  

The updated statistics were released in conjunction with Mayor Bill de Blasio's signing of legislation that allows for a partial property tax abatement for property owners whose buildings were impacted by Sandy and whose tax bill in the city's Fiscal Year 2015 is greater than the corresponding tax liability from Fiscal Year 2013

Despite the encouraging progress, the city will have to ramp up its pace to meet the benchmark set by the mayor. At its current rate, the city will fall well short of his goal of 500 construction starts by summer's end.