Broad Channel Resident- "We Asked the Mayor for Help, Build It Back Gave Us An Impossible Deadline" [Part II]

Sophia testifying at hearings regarding recovery problems 5 years after Sandy at the Longworth Building, Washington, DC, during September of 2017.

Shortly after our original story regarding this issue was posted on this on this blog yesterday, we were notified by the Department of Buildings, Build It Back division that our job was approved and that the audit that had been placed on our job needed to be lifted. We were told in a meeting a month ago that the audit had been lifted at the request of Build It Back in advance of our meeting the September 29th deadline.

After learning that our DOB approved plans of August 2016 needed revisions by the Department of Environmental Conservation, an audit was placed on our job and more scrutiny was given to it -- as evidenced by the new rounds of objections, that seemed to grow exponentially with each new filing of plans. On September 26th, 2017, our engineer (who has been doing the architectural drawings) and I met with the Chief Plan Examiner of the New York City Department of Buildings Special Enforcement Team to address the auditor's concerns and he informed us that Build It Back asked that he lift the audit and outlined the 5 or 6 items that remained in need of being addressed. Now today, our job is approved (yay!), but we are told that the audit was not lifted and although Build It Back's division of the Department of Buildings can do this (as per the Chief Plan Examiner of DOB Special Enforcement Team), they are asking that our engineer again meet with the Chief Plan Examiner of the DOB Special Enforcement Team on Monday morning. I'm no genius, but I know when something bad is on the horizon because there is no reason why this meeting needs to be done in person unless there is the delivery of another gut punch on its way.

The heart of this is something basic, it's called bullying. We need our home to be built and we need money to do it because our flood insurance settlement won't cover everything. Our engineer has been good enough to stick with us through thick and thin, including the former Director of Build it Back Department of Buildings lashing out at our engineer, lambasting him as follows:

It is extremely disheartening what is happening here. You are doing an extreme disservice to the De-Virgilios.

When we had the 2 hour meeting here.. We were very clear on what needs to be done to indicate code and zoning compliance. We all but drew it for you. You seemed to understand, but little was done on the resubmitted drawings, which leads me to believe you did not understand what is necessary to comply.

I am at a loss what we can do to make you understand.

Kindly reach out and we’ll set up another appointment ASAP to get this taken care of.

And so since doing our job, every filing of any other jobs our engineer submits to DOB is met with more scrutiny than he has ever had before. The Department of Buildings has omnipotent power over the likes of homeowners, other property owners, contractors and all professionals whose livelihoods depend on DOB decisions. Build It Back has the power to determine if someone can go back home or not, by deciding the fate of a homeowner's rebuild since Sandy. There has been so much fuss surrounding this job because my family chose to go the Choose Your Own Contractor pathway, rather than going with a builder who has prototype constructions that they can bang out for people, or a prefabricated home that gets craned in by another contractor. The amount of stress the CYOC pathway has caused for my family and countless other people who wound up in one of the prefab or prototype pathways, or who just plain gave up because of how they felt bullied by the whole post-storm process really makes one wonder if there is another agenda at work. One of my Build It Back contacts acknowledged the level of stress in an emailed to me as follows:

Sophia,

I want to reiterate that you still have the option of going with a typical reconstruction built by XXXX, or one of our modular homes.  In all the homes that we have done, I have never in my life seen an architect have so many problems getting simple DOB approval.  There is simply no excuse for this.  I am afraid that they are not going to get it together.  

We once again blew the final deadline and HPD is of the firm belief that this project will not be started in a timely fashion..  

I would really giving some thought about saving yourself the stress of continuing down this road and letting the program handle all of this for you.  At this stage, the loss of the log cabin features may be outweighed by never having to deal with DOB/DEC again and letting us handle everything.  You’ll still get a brand new, resilient home.

Give it some thought.  In the interim, the architects have to get it together on DOB and xxxx has to submit to HPD. Things cant proceed without that.

Yet, in a phone conversation with the Director of NYC Housing Preservation & Development, Single Family Rebuild Program, the director said of our engineer, "he is very capable" and that "we have been using him for a lot of our jobs." My head is spinning more and more, with each new contact with this program and anyone associated with it.

When a government agency, despite its lofty and honorable goal of keeping the public safe, has towering authority and such an unchecked effect on people's lives and that there are entire professional groups that exist with the sole purpose of mediating and navigating this unwieldy bureaucracy, and they're not even the architects, engineers or builders... you have to ask if the people are being served, or abused by the system. When an agency that is tasked with the compassionate job of rebuilding the homes of people who were displaced due to a traumatizing natural disaster, but dealing with this group is so problematic that 14,000 of the original 22,000 people who signed up for help are no longer in the program, and I'm sure they weren't all ineligible, you have to wonder where the humanity is. PTSD for disaster survivors is far higher than for unaffected populations and as I've seen first hand, the storm was the easy part.

I just need to know who has our backs when powerful people abuse those who need help. We keep looking and asking for help, but my head hurts from the number of times I've gotten slapped.

Kindest Regards,

Sophia