WASHINGTON, DC – November 18, 2013 – (RealEstateRama) — Congressman Michael G. Grimm (R,C-SI/Brooklyn) sent a stern letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg calling on the City to reprioritize its CDBG funding plan to better meet the recovery needs of homeowners. Currently, the City spreads its funding across housing, resiliency, and mitigation. With so many people out of their homes or lacking the funds to repair their home, Rep. Grimm is calling on the City to put the people first and make them the top priority.
Congressman Michael G. Grimm in
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Congressman Michael G. Grimm in
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“As frustrations with Build-it-Back continue to escalate, it’s becoming abundantly clear that the City has not set aside enough federal funding to fully meet our housing recovery needs. The City’s priorities are clearly misaligned and it’s the working and middle-class families of Staten Island who are going to be left in the cold,” said Grimm.
“Without question, our #1 priority should be getting people back in their homes, and #2 should be investing in infrastructure upgrades to our sewage and water drainage system to prevent the type of back-up and flooding that damaged so many homes in Sandy and other storms. Unfortunately, the City doesn’t see it that way, which is why I am calling on them to re-prioritize funding to meet Staten Island’s most crucial recovery needs,” said Grimm.
Earlier this week, Rep. Grimm sent a letter to HUD asking for an additional $600 million from HUD in CDBG funds to be used exclusively for housing in order to meet the unmet non-NYCHA housing needs of those recovering from Sandy.
Text of letter:
November 13, 2013
The Honorable Michael Bloomberg
Mayor, City of New York
City Hall
New York, NY 10007
Dear Mayor Bloomberg:
My purpose in writing is to strongly urge a recalibration of the City’s priorities with regard to funding provided by the Federal Government for Sandy recovery. The current priority regime guiding the City’s use of Sandy funds is giving short shrift to thousand of Staten Islanders who remain in dire need.
As someone who was on the front line of the Congressional fight to enact the Superstorm Sandy Supplemental Appropriations bill, I can tell you with absolute certainty that our chief intent was to get families back into their homes and made whole as quickly as possible. Limiting our exposure to future flooding through resiliency and mitigation was an important priority as well, but a subordinate one in comparison to the needs of thousands of people who lost their homes and so much more to Sandy.
Unfortunately, we have reached a point where this intent has clearly not been met. Frustration with the City’s Build-it-Back program in my district is increasing daily, as more and more residents impacted by Sandy come to terms with the very real possibility that they will not receive support from this program any time soon, if ever. Many working middle class families who were far from rich before Sandy and lost almost everything are essentially being told by the City that they are too affluent to merit support from Build-it-Back. At the same time, they see that the City is allocating CDBG funds for less urgent needs, such as the $40M for a “Resiliency Technologies Competition” that, while perhaps laudable, is far from a top priority when many Sandy survivors are still out of their homes and barely getting by.
This is precisely the kind of absurdity that people have come to expect from their government, and I urge the City to work with me in restoring their faith in the recovery process by focusing first and foremost on getting people back into their homes and on their feet. While I understand that there are certain federal requirements attached to the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding the City received, it is clear from my conversations with federal officials that the City has significant discretion that would permit a much stronger emphasis on people whose homes were damaged by Sandy. It is well within the City’s power to re-allocate funding from the initial $1.7B in CDBG funding it received so that housing needs are clearly the top priority.
Finally, there remains a pressing need for waste and storm water infrastructure improvements in the vulnerable areas of Staten Island. In South Beach for instance, many residents are at the point where they can expect flooding of their homes nearly every time it rains. I was recently visiting a home on Kensington Avenue where the owner was forced to build a brick wall over their garage to defend against regular flooding. Until just recently, residents on this street had been told that a City capital project addressing the problem would begin at the end of this year. Now, just as things are getting worse, they have come to learn that the project start date has slipped to 2020. This exemplifies an issue that must be addressed in communities all along Staten Island’s coastline in the very near future to ensure their long-term sustainability, and furthermore, this is exactly the type of mitigation project that the Congress intended the federal aid to be used for.
Thank you for your prompt attention to these matters. My staff will be sending you follow-up questions for more specific details. I look forward to working with you to incorporate these urgent needs into the City’s action plan.
Sincerely,
MICHAEL G. GRIMM
Member of Congress
