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By Steven Rodas
For some, surviving the gale force winds and unprecedented flooding brought by the remnants of Hurricane Ida was just a prelude to what they say is a broken natural disaster recovery system.
On Thursday — more than three years after the storm — Gov. Phil Murphy conditionally vetoed opens in a new windowlegislation that would have provided qualifying residents a 1-year break from making mortgage payments and forestalled foreclosure for homeowners unable to keep up with their bills.
Dozens of families have rallied for that relief and activists argue at one time thousands sought financial help post-Ida.
In an exclusive call with NJ Advance Media on Thursday morning before the announcement, administration officials said the governor understood the frustrations felt by families clamoring for the aid.
Regardless, the administrators said the legislation, as it stands, could bring additional legal hurdles later. The proposed program as drafted could also be prone to abuse, the governor argued.
Conversely, the new conditional veto and the conditions it sets only prolongs the wait for families even more, organizers and impacted residents implored.
“As it stands, with the changes Gov. Murphy is demanding in order to pass this bill, we’re not sure if it would help even one Ida survivor that we know,” Jody Stewart, a leading advocate with the New Jersey Organizing Project, said Thursday. Stewart said the group and impacted families are still reviewing the proposed changes but believe they would further hamper who is helped.
In a opens in a new windowstatement released by the governor’s office Thursday afternoon, Murphy said he shared the legislature’s confidence that a temporary pause in mortgage payments and protection from foreclosure would help homeowners restore their Ida-damaged homes, which in some cases are still uninhabitable today.
The current bill “is not appropriately tailored to ensure that the relief it provides focuses on those who continue to have difficulty paying their mortgage due to Ida-related damage to their homes,” Murphy wrote, “and does not contain adequate oversight measures or safeguards to prevent abuse and to ensure compliance with the law.”
The state administration said that recommendations made in the conditional veto would tweak the bill to narrow the pool of people set to benefit from the financial help and administer a program under the oversight of the state’s Department of Community Affairs.
It’s unclear what that pool of people looks like as of now or what it would look like post-bill changes.
The suggested amendments to A2294 would align with mortgage and foreclosure relief program established through legislation enacted in response to Superstorm Sandy in 2017, Murphy said.
A opens in a new windowdraft of the proposed changes also appears to specifically define “storm-impacted homeowner” to a person who is participating in the state’s Homeowner Assistance and Recovery Program, or has applied to — and is pending an award from — the Mitigation Assistance Program. That’s also administered by the state.
For some homeowners, those conditions could translate to no longer getting aid.
“The requested changes to this bill mean we don’t qualify. I’ve been to Trenton so many times testifying for this bill, and now I won’t even qualify,” Leanna Jones, a Milford Ida survivor and New Jersey Organizing Project storm recovery activist, said Thursday noting she felt betrayed and sick.
Jones opens in a new windowapplied for Blue Acres post-Ida after she was told her home was in a “floodway” and did not qualify for Homeowner Assistance and Recovery Program funds.
“This is what disaster recovery programs and mortgage forbearance are supposed to be there for,” she added of her current situation. “Instead, 3 years later, I’m drowning.”
This September marked three years since the remnants of opens in a new window Ida swept through New Jersey — leaving opens in a new windowin its wake 30 deaths and destroying several communities.
Not everyone’s back in their homes, nor opens in a new window finished paying to rebuild.
Thursday’s announcement marked another stumbling block in that seemingly never-ending road to recovery after the storm. It was the same, climate advocates say, following opens in a new window Sandy.
In the Garden State post-Ida, the struggles have taken many forms.
A father said he and his boys were opens in a new windowforced to move into an RV. Several families have been opens in a new windowentangled in bureaucracy with hopes of getting a buyout. And an entire neighborhood — Lost Valley in Manville — was told opens in a new windowthe state would stop paying to raise homes in their flood-prone area as part of the long-running Blue Acres program.
While it’s not known how many residents are fighting mortgage relief payments as of this week, Cameron Foster, a spokesman for the New Jersey Organizing Project, said dozens of families have attended meetings in Trenton to advocate for assistance.
He added that plenty of people affected by the storm, unable to keep up with payment or the cost of living in New Jersey, have simply decided to leave the state.
The legislation, which passed both the state Senate and Assembly in June, would have given forbearance for those who got federal relief for damage to their home, have a gross household income that did not exceed 150% of the most recent area median income in their zip code and do not have significant cash or savings in reserve.
New Jersey Sen. Doug Steinhardt, R-Warren, pleaded with Murphy opens in a new windowin a letter at the end of August to sign the legislation.
“As written, the bill would have given instant relief to those who have been ignored, overlooked, and unassisted for three long years since Hurricane Ida, without all the bureaucratic red tape that the Governor’s recommendations would require,” Steinhardt said in a statement Thursday. “Those affected by the storm don’t have any more time to waste, though, so I urge the Legislature to return to Trenton as soon as possible to adopt the Governor’s suggestions and get these residents the help that they so desperately need.”
Stefanie Hosgood, an Ida survivor from Manville who has two kids, told NJ Advance Media: “It has been a long wait for this bill to get to the governor’s desk. For our family, Ida has put us into so much debt that it is becoming difficult to find a way out, especially now that our house — that we can’t even live in — is going into foreclosure.”
Members of the New Jersey Organizing Project and the New Jersey Resource Project, non-profit advocacy groups that help storm survivors get relief, said additional legislation needs to be installed for New Jerseyans who suffer damage — regardless of the natural disaster — to get immediate aid like having their mortgage bills paused for a year and foreclosure forbearance.
“Now that we’ve needed to fight for a year — or more — of mortgage forbearance for both Sandy and Ida it’s clear that this isn’t just a one-off but a necessary resource,” Foster, an organizer with the groups, highlighted.
Murphy and his administration have emphasized the various ways that help for those most in need has been provided over the years. That’s taken the form of state-administered programs like the Department of Community Affairs’ Homeowner Assistance and Recovery Program and the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency’s Emergency Rescue Mortgage Assistance Program.
Yet the evidence that mortgage and foreclosure protection relief is needed has been ample for homeowners, families said.
Colleen Kane, of Lambertville while discussing Ida in July, said, “We still can’t live in our home, it’s so badly damaged from the storm.”
Kane has had to pay a monthly $2,200 mortgage and another $2,000 a month for an apartment. She said “the daily struggle” of deciding what expenses she can afford has been “taking a toll.”
Eric Vaughn, who moved opens in a new windowinto an RV with his two boys in Manville, has similarly spent hundreds of thousands to remain in his community and rebuild his home.
Residents like Vaughn and Jones in Milford say they are wary of a national storm recovery system embroiled in red tape and not always easy to navigate.
State and federal officials say they’ve sought to learn lessons from past natural disasters, but storm survivors argue those efforts have not been sufficient.
As for the latest Ida relief bill, if legislators agree with the parameters set by Murphy, they can then send the newly adjusted bill to the governor. He’d then have 10 days to act on that bill.