This home on Garibaldi Avenue in New Dorp Beach displays a message of resilience, as Island residents struggle to rebuild after Hurricane Sandy. Federal relief money is on the way to the state. (Staten Island Advance/Anthony DePrimo) (Staten Island Advance/Anthony DePrimo)
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CITY HALL -- The Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development is releasing its third and last chunk of Hurricane Sandy relief funding - with some $600 million coming to New York State, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office.
The Newark Star-Ledger, meanwhile, is reporting that $994 million will come to New York City, which receives federal Sandy funding separately from the state, and that New Jersey will receive $882 million.
The $600 million in community development block grants coming to New York state will help the state's New York Rising programs -- which include home repair and rebuilding programs outside New York City, and the state's buyout program, ongoing in several Staten Island Communities.
It brings the state government's total allocation of community development block grants to $4.4 billion. The block grants account for $15.8 billion of a massive $50 billion relief package passed by Congress after Sandy, and are a flexible funding source used to provide more direct relief to storm victims through program's like the state's buyout and the city's Build it Back program. Other funding in the relief package will go to reimbursing local governments for costs incurred during and after the storm.
The law passed in Congress allows for the money to be spent on any disaster that occurred in 2011, 2012, and 2013, and though it was passed largely with the intention of helping victims of Sandy, it will also help victims of Hurricanes Irene and Lee in New York.
"New Yorkers have suffered a tremendous burden in recent years with 100-year storms coming every year. Sandy, Irene and Lee, flash floods and other weather emergencies throughout our State have forced us to be innovative, resourceful and strategic in our recovery efforts," Cuomo said in a statement. "We are grateful to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan for his leadership, and to have been allocated more than $4 billion in Disaster Relief.
We will continue to return people to their homes and rebuild New York State communities better, stronger and more resilient than ever before."
This final round of money headed to the state will be used to invest "primary in infrastructure designed to prepare the state to withstand the impacts of future storms, according to the state government.
The $994 million the Star-Ledger reports is heading to New York City is just shy of the city's most recent estimate of how much more it needs to help every single homeowner who has registered for Build it Back -- $1 billion, which is higher than previous estimates under the Bloomberg administration.
But that's just the city's unmet housing need - and the block grants have also been used to help businesses hit by the storm, among other endeavors.
A spokeswoman for Mayor Bill de Blasio's hurricane recovery efforts did not return requests for comment on the HUD allocations Friday.
The allocations of the block grants have not been without controversy. Many have griped that the process has simply taken too long, bogged down by bureaucracy. And elected officials were outraged earlier this year at reports HUD was considering using up to $1 billion.
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