Amid Christie scandal, Sandy relief funds released

Published January 15, 2014
By Jacqueline L. Urgo

The release Tuesday of $145 million in long-awaited funds - money that could help as many as 2,000 New Jersey Shore families impacted by Hurricane Sandy finally return to their homes - was announced amid a federal review into whether Gov. Christie misspent relief funds on a controversial tourism campaign.

The state received approval from the Obama administration to amend the New Jersey Disaster Relief Recovery Action Plan to move additional money from existing federal Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds into two Sandy recovery housing programs. Previous codes written into the acts prevented the funds from being used to aid wait-listed homeowners in two separate resettlement programs.

Thanks to federal and state funding gridlock, nearly 15 months after Sandy created $38 billion in damage in New Jersey, tens of thousands of residents of the state's shoreline counties are still awaiting the aid of grants, loans, and insurance payments that could allow them to return to homes damaged by the storm.

The Christie administration says it requested the formula change so $110 million could be added to the Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation, and Mitigation Program (RREM). That program will give 1,000 homeowners grants up to $150,000 to rebuild or repair their homes. Officials said some homeowners on the RREM waiting list should receive letters "shortly," notifying them that they have been preliminarily approved for the grant and advising them of the next steps to take.

The approximately 7,000 homeowners who remain on the waiting list will be advised of their ranking on that list, so they can decide their own plans, officials said.

Thousands more who did not apply for aid, or are hoping to collect on their insurance premiums, remain uncounted by the state Department of Community Affairs, which has released no firm numbers on just how many year-round Shore residents remain homeless.

Staci Berger, executive director of the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey, said she was less concerned about the timing of the release of the funding on Tuesday, one day after federal officials announced they were looking into whether the Christie administration misspent Sandy relief funds on the tourism ads that featured the governor and his family during an election year. Berger said she was more focused on its inadequacy at returning to their homes the thousands of Shore residents who remain displaced by the storm.