Sandy recovery program seeks to build on 2014 success in Queens
The city’s Build it Back program is seeking a new construction manager for Queens to increase the number of renovations on Sandy-ravaged homes. Here, Build it Back workers lay the ground-work for a construction project in Broad Channel.
Posted: Thursday, December 18, 2014 10:30 am | Updated: 12:40 pm, Thu Dec 18, 2014.
In an effort to help families affected by Superstorm Sandy rebuild their homes, the city’s Build it Back program is seeking a new construction manager for Queens.
“Since the mayor’s overhaul, this has been a year of significant progress,” Amy Peterson, director of the mayor’s Office of Housing Recovery, which oversees the Build it Back program, said in an email to the Queens Chronicle. “And we expect the onboarding of new construction firms — who will deploy new strategies to target entire neighborhoods — will continue to accelerate the city’s Sandy recovery.”
The new construction manager, who will be selected through a bidding competition, will be tasked with working to rebuild homes in communities that were heavily hit by the Oct. 29, 2012 storm, and working on a bundle of homes at once instead of focusing on rebuilding one house at a time.
The Build it Back program also wants 20 percent of the construction workers taking part in the renovations of the homes to be residents of Sandy-impacted communities.
Peterson said Queens residents enrolled in the program will be allowed to “work directly with these new construction managers as they come on board.”
Similar bidding competitions for construction managers are taking place in Brooklyn and Staten Island.
The Build it Back program was initiated by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg in June 2013 in an effort to rebuild homes damaged by Sandy, or to give reimbursement checks to those who made repairs to their houses by themselves.
Many residents, however, found it difficult to receive help from the program in its first six months and many elected officials lambasted the program for its slow start, which at the beginning of the year had started zero construction projects and sent out zero reimbursement checks.
As of Tuesday, the program has started construction on 306 houses in Queens and issued more than $14 million in reimbursement checks, according to Build it Back officials.
Peterson said the program has been working more closely with area elected officials to identify community needs in recovering from the storm, including placing satellite offices in their district offices.
State Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach), one of the politicians to host the program in his district office, believes it was overwhelmed at the start.
“I think Build it Back was burdened by so many people who needed assistance,” the senator said.
Many of his constituents, Addabbo said, have seen the program progress, but he said there’s still more work to be done.
“We’re hopeful that over time we’ll see more progress,” he added.
Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder (D-Rockaway Park) was at a town hall hosted by Build it Back in Breezy Point on Monday, and said people were less angry at program officials than at previous meetings.
“While there were still some people who were frustrated, the mood was hopeful,” he said of the meeting. “We’re starting to see positive progress.”
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