The Federal Emergency Management Agency is providing its largest grant ever -- $3 billion—to the New York City Housing Authority to repair and protect 33 public housing developments that sustained severe damage during Hurricane Sandy.
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Mayor Bill de Blasio made the announcement on March 31.
Half of the funds will go toward repairs, they said, with the other half for resiliency measures. Through FEMA's alternative-procedures mechanism, the city agency will receive a lump-sum payment instead of the typical incremental funding.
Sandy's storm surge on Oct. 29, 2012, flooded basements and first floors of 33 NYCHA buildings, severely damaging boilers and electrical and mechanical equipment and leaving many residents without power and heat for days or weeks.
The funds will enable NYCHA to make critical repairs and implement key resiliency measures such as construction of elevated boilers and installation of flood barrier systems and stand-by generators.
"This investment won't simply bring NYCHA developments back to pre-Sandy conditions," de Blasio said in a statement. "It will allow us to fortify buildings and utilities so that they're resilient - and residents are much better protected - next time extreme weather hits."
Work completed through this funding will be subject to NYCHA's recently negotiated project labor agreement with the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, as well as its affiliated unions. De Blasio said this will allow NYCHA residents to gain access to union jobs and training and helping ensure swifter capital construction.
NYCHA requires more than $18 billion beyond the announced funding to address its broader unmet capital needs across its portfolio of more than 330 developments, according to de Blasio.
