A $3 billion bonanza from the Federal Emergency Management Agency — the disaster bureau’s largest grant ever — will go to repair and upgrade city public housing projects damaged by Hurricane Sandy.
The money will flow to 33 NYCHA developments in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, Mayor de Blasio and Sen. Chuck Schumer plan to announce Tuesday.
“When Sandy hit, it brought weeks of cold and darkness for thousands of NYCHA residents – and too many are still feeling the impact,” de Blasio said. “This investment of $3 billion, the largest in FEMA history, won’t simply bring NYCHA developments back to pre-Sandy conditions. It will allow us to fortify buildings and utilities so that they’re resilient.”
Developments, including the Red Hook, Coney Island and Gowanus Houses in Brooklyn and Hammel and Redfern Houses in the Rockaways, will benefit from the funding.
It will pay for new boiler buildings, elevated to protect them from rising floodwaters, according to the mayor’s office.
Sandy knocked out heating systems at developments across the city, and some are still using temporary boilers prone to breakdowns.
“We’re happy that they’re going to do something to help us, finally,” said Lillie Marshall, a tenant association president at the Red Hook Houses, who added that the complex is still using temporary boilers and a destroyed senior center has not been rebuilt. “We need the money. We need repairs.”
Officials plan to install flood walls that can be deployed to protect the lower levels of buildings from surging water.
The buildings will get standby generators to keep power on if there are future outages, and new buildings for electrical equipment will be elevated to avoid floods.
The money, from the $51 billion approved by Congress, will also pay to repair doors, walls, floors, playground equipment and fencing still damaged two and a half years after the storm.
“This is why we fought so hard to pass the Sandy relief bill — so every single person impacted by that disaster could be made whole, and to build back better,” Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.
