Report: Brooklyn Still Not Recovered From Hurricane Sandy

The Brooklyn Recovery Fund has issued an impressive report on the state of Brooklyn more than a year after Hurricane Sandy. The report, issued a little over a month ago, found:

“While systems are back online and homes are mucked out, coastal communities continue to struggle. Home and business owners have spent down their life savings and built up debt. Many are barely making mortgage payments, and live in fear of foreclosure. Tenants face new and increasing landlord issues, including ongoing repair needs and rent hikes, and many have been forced to start over in unfamiliar neighborhoods. Storm drains remain clogged, temporary boilers create the random loss of heat, and mold persists in homes — threatening the health of our families. These needs require the utmost attention and commitment from local and city-wide decision-makers and government agencies, and beg the cooperation of all those involved to ensure that our communities recover to be better and stronger than ever before.”

The report has specific recommendations for each neighborhood in the five areas of housing, health, business and jobs, immigrant and undocumented communities and infrastructure. All the recommendations are backed up with studies and data. Some of the findings:

*Repair sinkholes and remove debris from abandoned buildings in Red Hook and Coney Island.
*Prioritize Sandy-impacted tenants in need of apartment repairs by moving their cases to the top of the backlog list (rather than issuing ticket numbers as usual), including in cases of mold in Sandy-impacted housing developments.
*Lower property taxes in proportion to the drop in property value after a disaster.

The findings on infrastructure are particularly troubling. In hard-hit Gerritsen Beach, problems were caused by “a faulty sewage system and above-ground power lines…storm drains remain clogged across our coastal communities today,” said the report.

Hurricane Sandy: It’s Still Not Over for Many Brooklyn Residents [Brownstoner]