Senator Calls On HUD To Provide Relief
Sen. Charles E. Schumer called on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to establish a framework for how assistance programs can be structured with Community Development Block Grants Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funding to help housing cooperative and condominium owners impacted by Hurricane Sandy.
Co-op and condominium owners are not currently eligible for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants to cover the cost of repairs to common areas and infrastructure.
“After Sandy, FEMA was able to help many communities, however, due to inflexible bureaucratic rules co-op and condo homeowners were left in the wake,” said Schumer. “While individual homeowners can receive money from FEMA to repair a damaged boiler or electrical system, similar grants are not available for this type of common infrastructure of co-ops and condos. Fortunately, the law we just passed with new aid to rebuild is flexible and I strongly urge HUD to use the CDBG program to fill this clear gap, and to work with affected communities to establish a funding framework that uses these block grants to help co-op and condo homeowners repair and rebuild after Sandy.”
According to FEMA, co-operative and condominium associations are not eligible for grants because, unlike single family homes, they carry a “master policy” for the complex that is paid through association fees and therefore, the occupant of an individual co-op or condo unit is responsible for damages. Common areas of housing cooperatives that suffered damage from Sandy may be eligible for Small Business Administration loans.
Community Development Block Grants Disaster Recovery Assistance is a block grant program administered by HUD to provide communities with resources to address community development needs after a presidentially declared disaster like Sandy. Schumer worked to ensure that Sandy disaster relief legislation included $16 billion in CDBG-DR funding.
Earlier this week, HUD announced allocation levels for the first $5.4 billion of this funding. Of the initial $5.4 billion tranche, New York State and New York City are eligible for approximately $3.5 billion in CDBG-DR funds.
Schumer called on HUD to stand ready to assist Community Development Block Grants Disaster Recovery funding recipients to establish programs to help impacted co-operative owners. Schumer also noted that, for any number of reasons, many coops with damages from high winds and trees are not eligible for FEMA grants.
As a result, the immense numbers of New York co-ops affected by the storm are in need of an alternate source of funding for repairs, such as the highly flexible CDBG-DR funding, the senator added.
