HUD Makes Change For Common Area Repairs
Sen. Charles E. Schumer announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will allow 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. The move comes after Schumer requested that HUD establish program guidelines to establish eligibility requirements to help co-op and condo homeowners repair damage incurred by Sandy.
The funds can be used to repair common areas in the building, such as lobbies, boilers and elevators.
“We have finally cleared a bureaucratic hurdle that prevented thousands of homeowners in New York City and Long Island from getting the help they needed,” said Schumer. “We have always said that condos and co-ops should be eligible for the same assistance as single family homes, and now they are.”
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 Superstorm Sandy. Schumer worked to ensure that Sandy disaster relief legislation included $16 billion in CDBG-DR funding.
Last month, HUD announced allocation levels for the first $5.4 billion of this funding. Of the initial $5.4 billion, New York State and New York City are eligible for approximately $3.5 billion in CDBGDR funds. However, it was not clear following the initial allocation whether co-op and condo owners would qualify for assistance.
Last month, Schumer called on HUD to allow CDBG-DR aid to be used for co-ops and condos, to fill the gap left by FEMA’s existing policy against providing individual assistance for repairs to common areas, such as exterior damage or damage to building-wide electrical systems.
“This welcome decision to allow federal aid for storm-damaged condos and co-ops will provide muchneeded relief to the thousands of families and seniors who live in these buildings. It will save these victimized homeowners from unfairly shouldering the massive capital expenditures to repair common areas and infrastructure. Co-op and condo owners deserved the same relief that private homeowners received, and this decision helps accomplish that basic fairness,” said Schumer.
The senator also noted that New York has one of the largest concentrations of cooperative housing in the nation, but for several reasons many co-ops 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.
