The Piece of Paper Standing in the Way of This Man and His Home

Frank Azack doesnt bother to lock his door anymore.

Theres nothing to take, he chuckled. The house is totally empty!

Standing in the echoey, gutted remains of the tiny structure in Toms River that he and his wife used to call home, its easy to see what he means. The walls are gone, leaving exposed pipes and wiring; the floor is warped, and theres still evidence of mold in some places. For Azack, its a depressing sight.

The insurance company told me that I should have the floors ripped out, put new beams in, replace the plywood, clean out the crawlspace, and repair any cracks with epoxy adhesive, he said. Like putting a Band-Aid on it, you know? Its not going to work.

Not going to work because theres a crack in the foundation, and the house is slowly sinking into the ground. Essentially, its a total loss. Azacks insurance company finally acknowledged as much, cutting him a check in mid-2013 for $74,000 dollars, 82 percent of the structures value. But town officials initially said his losses were much less. It took Azack another year to get a letter from Toms River, declaring his home substantially damaged.

Every time I called downtown, Id get put to a different department, I got hung up on. Call Engineering. Call Planning. Call Zoning. I kept getting put all over the place, Azack recalled. Nobody would give me a solid answer. And I just needed a letter stating how much damage I have. We dont have those letters. Thats what I was told.

The reason this matters is because after Sandy, the state of New Jersey gave priority to grant applicants who submitted substantial-damage letters from their towns, showing their homes had lost more than 50 percent of their value. While Azack was calling around, trying to get that document, the grant deadline passed, so he lost out on up to $150,000 he desperately needed to rebuild his home.

For all the homeowners whove successfully navigated the complicated recovery process, sorting through mountains of paperwork, making countless trips backs and forth to meet with their housing advisors, and spending hours on the phone with government bureaucrats, all to earn a spot in line for aid, its hard to know just how many people are in situations like Azack.

Of the nearly 9,000 New Jersey residents whove received preliminary approval so far through the states largest grant program, fewer than 300 have gotten funding and completed construction on their homes. Among themultitude of reasonswhy Sandy aid has taken so long, for some storm victims, obtaining this elusive document from their towns was part of the problem. Looking back, critics say theres plenty of blame to spread around, from municipal officials uncertain of their duties to the state for not clarifying grant requirements from the outset to the feds for failing to mandate training for the local floodplain managers responsible for issuing these letters. In some cases, it appears that attempts by bureaucrats to control the process and manage the flow of applications actually made things more confusing and left homeowners twisting in the wind.

The Department of Community Affairs has resolved to eventually provide funding for all grant applicants, including those who were unable to obtain substantial-damage letters, but the added delays have been difficult and stressful, and many residents will likely still fall through the cracks. Whatever lessons can be drawn from this experience, for some unfortunate homeowners, those lessons come too late to help.

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The Piece of Paper Standing in the Way of This Man and His Home