HUD Backs Off Effort To Recoup Money From Sandy Victims
the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) backed down from its effort to recoup relief money from Sandy-impacted homeowners.Last week, (HUD) announced that most homeowners would not be required to repay relief funds if FEMA determined flood insurers had underpaid their claims. FEMA also announced that it would extend the deadline for Sandy victims to have their flood insurance claims reviewed by 30 days, to October 15.
“The people this decision helps are the people who have scraped — and are still scraping — to get by and rebuild their homes, their lives,” Senator Chuck Schumer said in a statement. “These are not the people the feds should be knocking on the door of to pay up. They did not profit from this disaster and many of them are still paying for home repairs and will be for a long, long time.”Homeowners who received $20,000 or less as a result of FEMA’s review — triggered by revelations that insurers had stiffed Sandy victims — will not be forced to repay aid awarded by HUD through programs like Build it Back and NY Rising. The remaining claims, expected to affect 25 percent of homeowners seeking reimbursement, will be reviewed by HUD on a case-by-case basis, according to Schumer’s office.
HUD came under tremendous pressure last month when it announced that it’s duplication of benefits policy meant it would seek to recoup money from homeowners who won their cases against insurers. Mayor Bill De Blasio and City Councilman Mark Treyger, head of the Committee on Recovery and Resiliency, signed a letter to HUD Secretary Julian Castro calling the federal rules “patently unfair.”
“Asking the City and homeowners to stop and re-evaluate their HUD grant funding at this point will divert significant program resources and delay construction and relief for homeowners,” the letter read.
Senators Schumer and Gillibrand also penned a letter to HUD, as did Governor Andrew Cuomo, asking Castro use his executive authority to waive the duplication of benefits requirement.
“Waiving this requirement is not just smart policy – it’s the right thing to do,” Cuomo said in a press release. “In a matter of days, Superstorm Sandy turned millions of lives upside down, and many people are continuing to put back the pieces of what was lost.”