.jpg)
BY CORINNE LESTCH , JOE KEMP
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Saturday, March 29, 2014, 11:38 PM
Newly appointed city leadership team will reallocate millions in federal funds to fix every destroyed home along the city's coast, the mayor said.
Mayor de Blasio, taking a shot at his predecessor, announced $100 million in government cash is coming this week to homeowners hit 17 months ago by Hurricane Sandy.
“Help isn’t just on the way,” de Blasio promised Saturday in the Rockaways, one of the worst-hit sections of the city. “Help is already here.”
De Blasio, joined by U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), said a newly appointed city leadership team will reallocate the millions in federal funds to fix every destroyed home along the city’s coast.
Schumer blamed the Bloomberg administration for allowing red tape to hinder the process for homeowners to receive the desperately needed funds.
JOE KEMP/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS/JOE KEMP/NEW YORK DAILY NEWSJohn Cori, 51, whose Rockaway home was damaged by Hurricane Sandy, called the announcement "heartening."
“The No. 1 priority was getting homeowners money so they could fix their properties,” he said. “That process was so overly bureaucratic that no one in New York City has still gotten a single nickel.”
Lifelong Rockaway resident John Cori, 51, echoed the mayor’s belief that it’s about time some cash came to the Queens neighborhood.
“It’s heartening,” said Cori, standing in his gutted basement one block from the Atlantic Ocean. “It’s just a start. It’s mile one of a marathon. We’ll take everything we can get.”
It’s just a start. It’s mile one of a marathon. We’ll take everything we can get.
He agreed that the paperwork for aid was a “bureaucratic nightmare” since the hurricane tore through the city in October 2012.
De Blasio said he’s getting the $100 million from new revenue streams and by shifting resources from other underused programs.
“We’re finding money that has not yet been tapped into before,” he said without providing specifics.
DEBBIE EGAN-CHIN/NEW YORK DAILY NEWSMayor de Blasio, joined by Sen. Chuck Schumer, announced that federal funds are being re-allocated to re-build every destroyed home along the city's coast.
While the mayor said the rebuilding should begin this week, skepticism abounded among those worn out by the waiting.
“We’ve always gotten the scraps.” said Rockaways resident Steven O’Sullivan, 53. “We have always gotten the short end of the stick.
“There’s a cautious optimism about it, but I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Where's the rest of the federal money -- $680+ million -- of which less than $10 million has been disbursed?? Whose pocket is that going to line??
ReplyDelete