Staten Island homeowner Donna Panebianco is getting help from New York City's Build it Back program.Kevin Hagen for The Wall Street Journal
Almost two years after superstorm Sandy, the de Blasio administration said it has made good on its pledge to help hundreds of hard-hit property owners get their lives back on track.
The city has exceeded its goal of reimbursing 500 homeowners and beginning construction or repair work on 500 homes by Labor Day, the administration said.
The administration has defined construction starts to encompass any home that a contractor has visited and done some form of work. That could include measuring, delivering materials, beginning asbestos abatement, putting up a construction fence, laying the foundation, installing stilts for elevation or repairing wiring.
The progress, which the administration plans to formally announce Tuesday, marks the first spurt of activity for a program that has struggled in its attempt to revitalize the middle-class neighborhoods on the city's coast.
Amy Peterson, director of the Mayor's Office of Housing Recovery, said it expected to begin construction on at least 50 homes a week from now on, thanks to an acceleration of the program in recent weeks.
"The 500 goal was the initial goal to show that we could get started on all of the pathways. We're going to set much more aggressive goals going forward," Ms. Peterson said.
A home in the Breezy Point section of Queens. Kevin Hagen for The Wall Street Journal
Under a program known as Build it Back, created by the city to distribute federal money, homeowners get assistance including repairs or reimbursements. The more than 1,000 served so far are among more than 15,000 homeowners seeking help under the program.
Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged in April to have 500 homes under construction and 500 reimbursement checks sent to those who paid for repairs out-of-pocket by the end of the summer.
The city has completed repair work on 68 homes and has built one brand-new home, in Breezy Point in Queens.
Local leaders said the program appeared to be running more smoothly, but that many families remain frustrated with the pace of recovery. "Most people thought 500 reconstruction starts would be 500 new homes," said Dan Mundy, president of the Broad Channel Civic Association.
According to data from the city's website tracking recovery progress, 411 homes were under construction and 536 reimbursement checks had been sent out as of Aug. 26. By Labor Day, the city expected to have 536 construction starts and 543 reimbursement checks, city officials said.
Ms. Peterson said the number jumped sharply—by about 100 construction starts in the final days before the deadline—because the administration had worked to help homeowners complete designs for their homes.
In response to criticism from some local leaders that the city was allowing relatively little progress to count as a construction start, a spokeswoman for the program said, "The vast majority of the homes have already seen extensive work."
The city also planned to announce Tuesday additional changes that officials said could accelerate the construction process, such as putting city workers in charge of managing complaint-intake centers instead of outside contractors.
New York state and New Jersey have made significantly more progress than New York City. New York state officials said that more than 7,000 homeowners have received about $350 million worth of reimbursement. In New Jersey, officials said that nearly 3,800 homeowners have signed agreements to receive $446 million of funding. Nearly 3,000 are in the construction process, including applying for permits, repairing damage or elevating homes.
Staten Island homeowner Roy Garlisi is also getting help from New York City's Build it Back program.Kevin Hagen for The Wall Street Journal
De Blasio administration officials say the city is lagging behind as it remakes an overly complicated program that they inherited from the Bloomberg administration.
Mr. Mundy, of the Broad Channel Civic Association, said Ms. Peterson has met monthly with local representatives and they had made progress on a number of fronts.
He added that at least one home in his neighborhood is being completely rebuilt and another damaged home is expected to be demolished to make way for a new one.
Donna Panebianco, a 54-year-old executive assistant and saleswoman who lives in the Dongan Hills neighborhood of Staten Island, said Build it Back has been working on myriad repairs, including fixing her siding, repairing windows and rehabilitating her back steps.
She said she applied to the city for help soon after the storm and her initial experience was "a nightmare: Nothing moved. Paperwork had to be signed four times."
But once they did the revamp, "it's been pretty smooth and pretty quick thereafter," she said.
Ms. Panebianco said life in her neighborhood feels almost normal, but not all are so lucky. In Breezy Point, occasional boarded-up oceanfront properties serve as a reminder of Sandy's destruction.
Retired schoolteacher Susan Scott, 63, said her home sustained damage to its foundation, first floor and roof. After help failed to materialize for the roof, subsequent rain and snow caused widespread damage to her second floor.
"I call almost weekly. They always say they'll come next week," Ms. Scott said of Build it Back. "My whole life I worked in the city, for the city. This is the one time in my life that I've asked for help and nobody cares."
State Assemblyman Phillip Goldfeder, a Democrat who represents Sandy-hit neighborhoods including Howard Beach, Broad Channel and Rockaway, said the construction starts represented significant symbolic progress but there is still much work to be done.
"There are over 7,000 Build it Back applications throughout my assembly district and if we were at 500 that doesn't even scratch the surface of helping enough families recover," he said.
—Joshua Dawsey and Adam Janos contributed to this article.
Write to Laura Kusisto at laura.kusisto@wsj.com