Broad Chanel Civic Association Meeting: Thursday April 25th

The Broad Channel Civic Association held its April 2013 meeting last night at the American Legion Hall.

The meeting was well attended, standing room only for most of the meeting, with more than 150 people packing the hall by 8:00 pm.

Attending for West 12th Road were:

John Heaphy

Nicole Weedon

Sophia DiVirgilio

Peter Mahon

Mr. Brad Gair, the Director of Housing Recovery Operations (HRO) for the City of New York, was present and provided an overview of the city's plan for disbursement of federal funds allocated to New York City by Congress under the Disaster Relief Appropriation Act of 2013 (Public Law 113-2 dated January 29, 2013).

Summary of Mr. Gair's Presentation/Overview of the CDGB-DR Program

The city intends to disburse this federal funding under the N.Y.C. Community Development Block Grant - Disaster Recovery Program (CDBG-DR).

An initial allocation of 1.77 billion dollars has been designated for use by New York City of which 720 million dollars has been designated for "housing" broken down as follows.

$350 million - 1 and 2 Family Homes (48.6% of total housing funds)

$250 million - Multi-Family Dwellings (34.7% of total housing funds)

$120 million - Public Housing (16.7% of total housing funds)

Mr. Gair's overview of the CDBG-DR focused primarily of the procedures, process and disbursement of the $350 million dollars of federal funds earmarked for 1 and 2 family homes.

According to Mr. Gair, the way this grant program will work, in simple terms, is that the city will:

1.  Identify the dollar cost of what a home requires to be made habitable again, and then,

2.  Identify the total funds received by a homeowner thus far from insurance, FEMA, etc.

If funding received from insurance, FEMA, etc., is less than the estimated total dollar amount required to fix the home. then the CDBG-DR Program is structured to issue a grant to cover that shortfall or "gap" to allow the homeowner to fix his or her home.

[NOTE: if you applied for and received or were offered a loan by the Small Business Administration (SBA) you are not presently eligible for this CDBG-DR program.]

Homeowners receiving such a grant to fix their home may utilize such funding for repairs by:

1.  Opting to allow the city to completely undertake and manage the repair of the home using city appointed architects/contractors with the grant money being paid directly to such contractor similar to the recent NYC Rapid Repair Program, or,

2.  The homeowner may elect to hire a private architect/contractor to effect such repairs but the total cost of such repairs may not exceed the dollar amount that would have been expended had the city solely managed such repairs. 

Mr. Gair stated that the CDBG-DR program will be "prioritized" with an initial priority being afforded that individuals in the "low to moderate income" ranges.

Mr. Gair also stated that the CDBG-DR program will now allow for the "reimbursement" to a homeowner who expended private funds to repair his or her residence with the exception of those homes which have been designated as "substantially damaged".  

According to Mr. Gair, this restriction on "reimbursing" homes deemed "substantially damaged" is required to be in compliance with the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) which requires an "environmental review" of a property prior to authorization of federal funds.  Mr. Bair stated that such an "environmental review" cannot be conducted for properties designated as "substantially damaged".

Mr. Gair went on to explain that there is no "cap" on the total reimbursement dollar amount for those properties which are not "substantially damaged" with the exception that the total dollar amount of reimbursement cannot exceed the value of "an average NYC house" with some adjustments.

Grants to allow a homeowner to elevate his or her home to come into compliance with pending FEMA Flood Elevation Maps will only be made available to those houses which have been designated "substantially damaged".   This is important to keep in mind because should you seek and receive a declaration of "substantial damage" for your home and then for any reason be found otherwise ineligible for grant money under the CDBG-DR program, you will then still be required  to comply with new building codes regarding Base Flood Elevations and repairing and raising your home at your own expense. 

At the conclusion of Mr. Gair's presentation, the meeting was opened to questions from those in attendance but, unfortunately, because of the size of the crowd, I could not fully hear most questions being posed to Mr. Gair. 

Issues to Keep in Mind....

SBA Loans

In the weeks following Hurricane Sandy every Broad Channel resident who met with FEMA was quickly guided to a representative from the SBA and told, in no uncertain terms, to apply for a low interest SBA homeowners loan.  Said FEMA to all...."You could possibly get up to $40,000 at 1% and it will open the door for grants down the road."

Well, the 1% ultimately became 6% and we never heard another word about grant monies until recently when the city announced it's CDBG-DR program.

Unfortunately, now we find out that if we applied for and received (or were offered but turned down) an SBA loan we are now ineligible for the CDBG-DR grant funds.

Reimbursement for Personal Funds Expended

The CDBG-DR program will now reimburse you for private fund expenditures to repair your house as long as your house is not deemed "substantially damaged" because of federally required compliance with the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA).

Quite honestly I am at a loss of words to even begin to try and explain this absurdity!


Declaration of Substantial Damage

You did the right thing for your family and already spent thousands of your child's college fund fixing your house and now need to utilize the ICC clause in your flood insurance policy to help elevate your house?  Apply for a substantial damage declaration from DOB and then kiss any hope of being reimbursed for your initial repair expenditures goodbye!

On the other hand, do not seek a substantial damage declaration, don't raise your house but get your reimbursement  and then watch your insurance premiums go into orbit over the next few years!

The above notwithstanding, please make it a point to call our elected representatives (Senators Schumer and Gillibrand as well as Congressman Meeks) each day and let their staff know that....

1.  We desperately require relief from the Biggerts-Waters Flood Reform Act Legislation of 2012, and,

2.  We desperately require relief from the restriction of federal grant monies to anyone who applied and received or were offered an SBA Loan, and

3.  We desperately require relief from the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) prohibiting reimbursement of private funds expended to repair houses deemed "substantially damaged", and,

4.  We desperately require relief from FEMA's Advisory Base Flood Elevation maps.