A program meant to offer Hurricane Sandy victims in New York City move on with their lives hasn't seen much traction since it was created back in 2013. A similar plan offered in Long Island had drastically different results—causing some to wonder what went wrong here. NY1's Amanda Farinacci filed this report.
A car slammed into Angela Ortiz' home during Hurricane Sandy. The impact and flooding caused $98,000 in damage.
Ortiz and her husband paid most of the bill themselves, after the city's Build it Back program said they were a low priority because of their income. Then, the city told the couple they could sell their home through the city to the state for pre-storm value—an option the Ortizes did not know existed.
"I just got in this, you could say, February, even though I applied in July 2013. So now it's like—the ball's rolling two years after?" Ortiz says.
The sale program is called Acquisition for Redevelopment. The state buys the properties for future redevelopment under tougher storm-resistant guidelines.
One hundred Staten Island residents are said to be considering it, but there have been only 30 buyout offers here and just two property sales.
City officials blame any delays on problems in securing federal funding.
"I would love to have it all done now. I think that we've made a lot of progress in the last year since we overhauled the program," says Amy Peterson of Build It Back.
Some officials here say the Bloomberg and de Blasio administrations failed to aggressively market the program to owners of damaged homes.
"Had the administration embraced Acquisition for Redevelopment, had the mayor gone out and had a press conference and said, 'This is the quickest, easiest way for those who are interested to giving you relief,' I believe Staten Islanders would have come out and chosen to do that," says Borough President James Oddo.
The program has had far different results in Nassau and Suffolk counties, where homeowners deal directly with the state.
The state has bought 226 properties, and 150 of them have already been auctioned off for redevelopment.
"I think that both the city and state took a different approach to rolling out their programs," says Rebecca Sinclair of NY Rising.
Officials now say the state will take the lead on this process, and once enough properties are acquired on Staten Island, a public auction will be held here, as well.