Council Committee to Review ‘Build It Back’ Problems

Council Committee to Review ‘Build It Back’ Problems
New York City Council member Mark Treyger speaks near the City Hall steps in Lower Manhattan, New York, on Feb. 24, 2014. Ivan Pentchoukov/Epoch Times
Ivan Pentchoukov
Updated:

NEW YORK—City Council will look into problems with the Build It Back program during a committee meeting next month, Mark Treyger the chair of the City Council Committee on Recovery and Resilience confirmed on Monday.

Treyger did not specify a date for the hearing, but said that subsequent meetings will be held.

“We’ll do it time and time again until our communities are built back,” Treyger said.

Treyger has previously criticized Build It Back, a program funded by the federal government, saying it has failed to help victims of Superstorm Sandy.

Treyger will also be part of a hearing this Thursday on temporary boilers for Sandy victims. The hearing will be held for at a public housing project on Coney Island. The meeting will be first in City Council history to be held at a public housing project.

Nearly 21,000 eligible applicants signed up for Build It Back, but no homes have been rebuilt since the program launched eight months ago.

Treyger also pointed out that only 876 people applied to the program from his district, where thousands were affected by the storm. He wants the registration for the program to reopen so that those who did not apply before the deadline get another chance.

Ivan Pentchoukov
Ivan Pentchoukov
Author
Ivan is the national editor of The Epoch Times. He has reported for The Epoch Times on a variety of topics since 2011.
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