The plants in front of Adam and Magdalena Lebron's Coney Island home are overgrown. Trash litters the lawn. Two wooden boards stand in place of a garage door.

The home, under construction by the city's storm recovery program, Build It Back, has been unoccupied for four years.

What You Need To Know


  • The Lebrons moved out of their home in June 2016, expecting work to elevate their home would be completed the following year. Work didn't begin until then. 

  • Instead, the home was demolished without their knowing, and a contractor walked off the job because it hadn't been paid.

  • The city told the couple they could move back in March 12, but that didn't happen. And then the pandemic hit. 

  • The city said there is still work to be done and is hoping the Lebrons can move back in next week.

"Literally, it looks like an abandoned house,” Lebron said, describing her home.

Just two blocks off the Coney Island boardwalk, the house was ravaged by Hurricane Sandy more than seven years ago.

The Lebrons spent about $100,000 on repairs, and when the city promised to pay for protecting the home from future storms the couple jumped at the offer. 

They moved out four years ago, expecting to be back at the beginning of the next year, but the work did not start until then and the problems only got worse.

"It’s like a nightmare that I still haven’t woken up from," she said.

The Lebrons thought their home would be elevated, but when Magdalena visited one day, it had been demolished.

Then a contractor hired by the city stopped working because it hadn't been paid. 

Early this year, the couple finally was told they could have their keys back on March 12. That didn't happen. 

"Okay, you’re telling me that the city is shut down, got it. But people were still working from home and that paperwork was filed before March 12 in order for them to give me a turnover date, right? So it really was just paperwork," Lebron said. 

The city said the contractor missed the March date because some last minute work was needed before a certificate of occupancy.

But since then, the home has been repeatedly burglarized, thieves making off with expensive air conditioning units inside and the condenser outside.

The city eventually hired a company to provide 24-hour security to deter more thefts.

Now, Magdalena Lebron is nervous. 

"I’m afraid to move back in without like security systems without a German Shepherd and a Pitbull,” she sad.

But Build It Back still cannot provide a definite date for the Lebrons to move back in. Now the program is saying maybe next week.

Magdalena Lebron wonders if she even wants to live there anymore.