Sweeney: N.J. needs a ‘Sandy bill of rights’


Published: January 14, 2014
By Michael Symons

Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, now beginning his fifth year in the Senate’s top leadership position, said priorities for the coming year include restoring cuts made in 2010 to earned income tax credit, gender pay equity and reinstating funds cut from women’s healthcare.

The one new item he put on the agenda was what he dubbed a “Hurricane Sandy bill of rights.”

“What’s going on in this state is not acceptable. I’m not blaming anyone. This storm knocked us down, and we’re very slow to get up. But what’s going on in the process is not acceptable,” Sweeney said.

“What we’re going to look for is more transparency. We want people to know why they were denied. We want people to know where they are on the list. And we’re going to expand from that,” Sweeney said. “But we owe it to the people of this state to advance a bill that ensures people that have been devastated by a storm the ability to at least know what’s going on.”

The state Department of Community Affairs says that as of a week ago, the state had awarded nearly $890 million of its initial $1.83 billion federal block grant. The state is currently developing its plan for spending the next $1.4 billion in block-grant funds it has been awarded.

Homeowners and housing groups have complained often about the bureaucratic hurdles and lack of information that frustrate the process of obtaining Sandy recovery funds.

Sweeney’s proposal would streamline the application process and establish clear guidelines for the state to respond, said Staci Berger, president and chief executive officer of the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey.

“We have heard from so many people who have lost everything. They need our government to help, not keep them stuck in an endless cycle of paperwork and follow-up phone calls,” Berger said.

“For too long, people impacted by superstorm Sandy have not been treated with the dignity and respect they deserve by the Christie administration,” said Adam Gordon, staff attorney for Fair Share Housing Center, which sued the state to obtain information about how aid is being awarded.

Also Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development approved a request from the Christie administration to reallocate $160 million in unused Sandy business-grant funds, including $145 million going to housing grant programs that had lengthy waiting lists.

The transfers add $110 million to the original $600 million program that provides homeowners up to $150,000 to repair or rebuild their homes. Roughly 1,000 homeowners moving off the waiting list for what’s known as the RREM Program will receive letters shortly telling them they’ve been preliminarily approved. Roughly 7,000 other applicants will get letters advising where they are on the waiting list.

The transfers also add $35 million to the Homeowner Resettlement Program, which will allow all applicants currently on the waiting list to receive the $10,000 grants. People will soon receive letters informing them they’ve been preliminarily approved, the state said.

Another $15 million is now being set aside to demolish unsafe Sandy-damaged structures in order to alleviate blight and address health or safety threats.