Community Corner

Lawsuit Seeks Answers on How Sandy Grant Recipients Are Chosen

State has asked for two extensions to respond to request for documentation on how recipients are being selected

Turned down for a Sandy rebuilding grant? Wondering why?

A lawsuit filed this week in state Superior Court is seeking to compel the state Department of Community Affairs – the agency that is administering federal grant funding in the wake of Superstorm Sandy – to provide answers on how it is doling out hundreds of millions of dollars in rebuilding grant funding.

Though most of the state's grants have eligibility criteria – some income-based, and all reserved for primary homeowners only – the final selection process into how individual recipients are selected has always remained unclear.

The suit, brought by the Fair Share Housing Center, was filed in response to a July 31 request under the state's Open Public Records Act for "basic documents explaining the policies by which families are being told they are ineligible for Sandy rebuilding grants," the group said in a statement.

The OPRA request sought documentation that outlines guidelines which explain the selection process for the two largest Sandy rebuilding grants to individual homeowners, the Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation and Mitigation (RREM) Program and Resettlement Grant, and the main Sandy rebuilding grant for landlords, the Fund for Rehabilitation of Small Rental Properties.

The three programs represent a combined $850 million, or 46 percent of the federal Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds from the federal Sandy recovery package. The request also asked that the information be posted online for everyone seeking grants to access.

Government agencies are required to produce the documentation sought in an OPRA request – or deny the request – within seven days. However the state asked for an extension to respond to the group's requests and promised to provide the documents no later than Sept. 5, 27 days after they were due, the group said. The state eventually asked the group for more time, promising the documents by Sept. 20.

The second delay prompted the filing of the suit.

"What is the big secret around why some of the most impacted victims of Sandy are getting turned down for rebuilding money?," FSHC Staff Attorney Adam Gordon said in a statement. "The documents that the Christie Administration is using to evaluate who gets money and who does not should be public. No more excuses, no more secrets."

State officials, in response to questions from Patch over the past several months, have provided the criteria for participating in one of the Sandy grant programs – the Sandy Homebuyer Assistance Program – but did not provide a reporter with details on how grant recipients are ultimately chosen.

Patch had not filed an OPRA request on the matter.

The suit seeks immediate disclosure of the documents, FSHC officials said.


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