Page 16 - The Long Road Home

FUNDING THE RECOVERY
prompted FEMA to agree to reopen and review any of the 144,000 flood claims from Sandy survivors who believed they weren’t fairly compensated.10
The FEMA claims review process was scheduled to take less than 90 days to complete. However, like many other programs in the recovery process, FEMA did not end up keeping its commitment to speed. As of September 2017, FEMA had closed 16,900 out of 19,461 claims, and nearly 84 percent of those claims resulted in additional payments totaling $223,362,254 (policyholders can request a third party neutral review of their decision if they don’t agree).11 While homeowners were systematically underpaid, the private insurance companies that administer the WYO program were making significant profits. According to an investigation conducted by PBS Frontline’s “Business of Disaster” program, these companies made up to $400 million in profit after expenses
While homeowners were systematically underpaid, the private insurance companies that administer the WYO program were making significant profits. According to an investigation conducted by PBS Frontline’s “Business of Disaster” program, these companies made
up to $400 million in profit after expenses for simply administering the program.
by other public or private funding sources like FEMA, SBA loans, or private insurance. The state’s plan involved the creation of the RREM program with these funds.
HUD approved the plan on April 29, 2013, and on May 24, 2013, New Jersey announced the launch of several Sandy recovery grant programs including RREM, which provided grants of up to $150,000 to eligible homeowners for reconstruction, rehabilitation, elevation, and mitigation efforts, as well as the Resettlement grant, which provided $10,000 to eligible homeowners for non-construction purposes to incentivize them to remain in their communities. The press release announcing the RREM program said that homeowners with the most damage, whose homes were in the most impacted counties, and who were of low- to moderate-income (LMI) would be prioritized.15 Seventy percent of RREM funds were earmarked for LMI households.
for simply administering the program.12
FEMA assistance, SBA loans, and flood insurance proceeds were the first forms of assistance available after Sandy. Grants, through Community Development Block Grant - Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funding, followed. Because Congress appropriates funding for disasters on a case-by-case basis,13 grant and recovery programs typically roll out much later. The order in which aid is rolled out and the concept that federal funds must be used
before state funds is often referred to as the sequence of delivery in disaster recovery.
After considerable partisan disagreement in Congress, $51 billion dollars in aid was finally approved for Sandy recovery on January 28, 2013, nearly three months after the storm.14 Then, on March 27, 2013, New Jersey’s Department of Community Affairs submitted its grant action plan to access that funding through the CDBG-DR program under HUD. CDBG-DR funding is designed to satisfy “unmet needs,” i.e. financial needs that are not met
16
THE LONG ROAD HOME