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Areas hit hardest by Sandy experience a construction boom
Majority of permits issued over past two years were in for storm-affected neighborhoods: report
The areas of the city damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 have seen an uptick in construction, with the Department of Buildings issuing the most permits for the Queens neighborhood of Breezy Point over the past two years.
The department issued 149 permits for construction for the ZIP code that covers Roxbury, Rockaway Point and Breezy Point, DNAinfo reported. The ZIP code that includes Midland Beach and New Dorp on Staten Island received 126 permits since 2015. The ZIP code that includes Dongan Hills had 50 permits, according to the website.
The permits cover new construction, repairs or elevations of homes, and also includes new permits and renewals to construction projects. The Build it Back initiative — a federal aid program to help build homes destroyed in the superstorm — has recently picked up speed, resulting in more construction, according to the website.
As of October, Build it Back was half-a-billion dollars over budget, and had helped fewer than a third of the homes initially enrolled in the program. City officials acknowledged they had mishandled the recovery effort.
Estimates showed New York City’s private landlords sustained roughly $8.5 billion in property damage as a result of the storm, and the city’s government sustained property damages of about $4.5 billion. [DNAinfo] — Miriam Hall