Playing Whack-A-Mole Nearly Five and Half Years Post Sandy

Nearly five and a half years since Sandy destroyed our home, after continually requesting a meeting with
Build It Back (BIB) staff, and a week after filing F.O.I.L. requests with the Mayor's Housing Recovery Office
(HRO)/BIB, Department of Buildings (DOB) and Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), we got an
email from HPD saying our status in the program remains “withdrawn” as of October 27 th, 2017. Sounds like
someone is really nervous or really pissed that we dare question:

Despite verbal confirmation we were still in the program and all project related agencies continued working
with our team and me for 3 months passed October 27th, (lots of calls and emails), I filed F.O.I.L. requests
on January 17th, one week later on January 25th we learn our official status is "withdrawn," suggesting this
was a way to shatter our hope of returning home. Of course hammering out a final budget is all that's left.
Remarkably, many homes being lifted and in "the HPD City Selected Developer pathway home with no
design changes or upgrades" with no out of pocket costs for those homeowners, reportedly cost up to
$1 million:
 https://www.wsj.com/articles/deblasio-bypasses-council-on-moving-taxpayer-funds-1476751555
http://nycbreakingnews.com/2016/09/22/new-sandy-hit-looms-for-nyc-taxpayers-wall-street-journal/
https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20161121/rockaway-beach/build-it-back-hro-urs-corporation-comptrollers-
office-settlement
http://www.blackstarnews.com/ny-watch/news/build-it-back-nyc-comptrollers-report-says-contractors-are-paid

https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20160718/rockaway-park/head-of-citys-failed-build-it-back-should-resign-or-
be-fired-official

We've overcome countless hurdles including being set up to fail meeting that impossible September 29th
deadline because of letters written in the summer to the mayor asking him for help:

….

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On October 31st we got all permits, Energy Star approval by mid-December, then NYC DOB disapproved
those previously approved, permitted plans, apparently spotting items they missed when they gave us the
permits, not all were about the additional insulation and seemingly optional-clerical comments. No
construction job is perfect and what was flagged had no material effect on safety or square footage of the
house. This time it took only 2 volleys of changes to approve us, YIPEE!! Earlier submissions were
reviewed by senior Build It Back people.
Good News/Bad News:
In November HPD said we should have no transfer amount (money owed to BIB for duplications of benefits)
when we're done with Buildings and in fact would be due a credit for some pre-construction costs we'd paid.
However, if the bank reimburses us from our final flood settlement, not including the more than $45k in rent
we've paid (on top of our mortgage), we've spent out of pocket about $90k – a fortune for a retired teacher
and a help desk tech.
As noted in our post (https://w12thrd.blogspot.com/2017/11/broad-channel-resident-we-asked-mayor.html),
tigers don't change their stripes and the war isn't over until the fat lady sings… Ha! The New York Times
won't print pieces using clichés, we're living a bad B-movie cliché! As per my January 12th conversation with
HPD, there's a huge payment of almost $58k via certified check to the City for material upgrades, due
closing. Yet, homes being raised costing up to $1 million and those homeowners are not required to pay one
nickel to BIB. Our total rebuild is about $620k for materials and labor. Our flood settlement should be figured
into the City's costs offset. According to BIB's own Coordination Of Benefits document of November 2017
which states our "Total Allowable Activity Offsets" as $220,378.36 versus "Total Benefits Received" of
$166,186.96. We've spent $54,191.40 more than the received benefits (from flood insurance, FEMA grants
and (repaid) SBA loan money), which should be credited to our budget for a possible, more reasonable $3k-
$4k upgrade amount. But the COB worksheet, line w lists $0.00 instead of a credit to us for $54,191.40.
Yes? I agree!

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See below (confidential information redacted):

Yet again, in December BIB says there were more things to do before closing on our rebuild grant, to go
home. I am shocked, SHOCKED!
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Energy Star Modeling report – CHECK. Approved PAA – CHECK. Proof of full upgrade amount… escrow
and monies spent over benefits received… (wasn't there a credit?) – UN-CHECK. If we've spent so much
out of pocket and have escrowed flood settlement monies, why would we have to pay anything for
upgrades?
They said "soft costs are very high" – either we already paid them, or they're waiting to be paid (one of 4
expediters, W/J Professional Expediting, agreed to wait since 2015), or what's estimated for inspections –
invoices, receipts and proposals, all submitted.
The last 3 items are confusing: our contractor is doing, and/or has completed, more than a dozen properties
in the BIB program, they should know if he is in good standing since he’s a well-known entity:
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Alas, as special as I think we are, these experiences are not unique to us, especially in the CYOC pathway.
Stats of how many families started with CYOC then wound up in another pathway or withdrew altogether are
probably high. I'd bet money that those who abandoned CYOC did so because of the unending hurdles and
deadlines. I'd also hazard a guess that many felt pushed into a different pathway. The question is why? The
stress alone has given me heart palpitations that sent me to the emergency room on January 31st, after in
2017, 6 straight months of daily bowel distress (sorry for the intimate details):
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/05/nyregion/after-hurricane-sandy-a-rebuilding-program-is-hindered-by-its-
own-construction.html

Our CYOC pathway (where homeowners can more directly impact and control costs) home rebuild from
scratch is approximately $620k. The more than $54k above our received benefits, paid for much of the hard
costs. Remember, anyone I know who was in CYOC either withdrew from Build It Back altogether or felt
pushed into "the HPD City Selected Developer pathway with no design changes or upgrades…" for up to
$1 million a house.

To date, no answers to my questions or date for a meeting to clarify the budgeting process. I once heard
about a guy who had lifetime parole and I asked, "boy, who the hell did he piss off?!" I bet you're asking the
same question…maybe those F.O.I.L. requests will answer that and more questions, hopefully I’m not
hospitalized as the gotcha/whack-a-mole game with us continues. Stay tuned.