A Queens couple lost their cool following a NY1 town hall meeting on the city's "Build it Back" program. NY1's Ruschell Boone reports on what made them angry.
Lenny DeVirgilio says he wasn't looking for a confrontation when he approached two elected officials after NY1's town hall meeting on the troubled Build it Back program. But the Broad Channel resident says he could not contain his years of frustration.
"It just got the best of me. Like, something just went off on me," DeVirgilio said. "And again, I want to apologize because I'm not that type of person."
DeVirgilio, his wife Sophia and their 14-year-old daughter now live in a tiny rental. They have not had a permanent home since the storm four-and-a-half years ago.
Their house, which they now call the hole in the ground, was so badly damaged, it had to be torn down. Its rebuilding was finally supposed to begin in April through Build it Back, but there was yet another delay in securing the proper permits. They blame Build it Back.
"When are we going to have it? Are we ever going to? Can someone just tell us?" said Sophia DeVirgilio.
The couple said they went to the town hall meeting to get straight answers from city officials, but they said that didn't happen.
"I was making comments," Lenny DeVirgilio said. "I said, 'Did they sniff glue or some sort of drugs? Because I don't know if they are in touch with reality.'"
"There was a grain of truth in some of what he was saying," Sophia DeVirgilio said. "But I think, you know, look, I used to work in public relations, I know spin when I hear it."
The couple is now pleading for help. Both have battled serious health problems, are close to being bankrupt and working several jobs to make ends meet. They say they just want to go home.