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Ida victims say government left them drowning in debt / January 8, 2024 / NJ Spotlight
By Brenda Flanagan
“It’s just killing us. It’s just awful,” said Stefanie Hosgood, whose family home in Manville was flooded in Tropical Storm Ida more than two years ago. Hosgood is making mortgage payments on a house that was destroyed in the storm. Hosgood and thousands of other Ida victims hope New Jersey lawmakers soon pass a bill that would give them temporary forbearance on mortgage payments and foreclosures.
“We’re just asking to give these families just some space,” said Jody Stewart of the New Jersey Organizing Project. Even though the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development approved New Jersey’s spending plan for $228 million in flood disaster assistance, only a fraction of that aid has been disbursed, Stewart noted. Meanwhile, the state Department of Environmental Protection canceled federal grants to elevate homes in high-risk flood areas — like Manville’s Lost Valley — and started offering Blue Acres buyouts instead.
Stewart said Ida victims feel betrayed and hopeless. “No one has received any funding. So, they’re doing it out of pocket or taking loans or using credit cards. That mortgage payment relief will get them ahead,” Stewart said.
The bill ( opens in a new windowS-4117) would pause mortgage payments for a year, not delete them. It would also pause foreclosures for Ida victims who meet certain financial requirements.
“The storm happened more than two years ago. So it seems like we’re on a hamster wheel trying to get this done,” bill sponsor Sen. Troy Singleton (D-Burlington) says. The bill cleared committee but the governor’s office warned Gov. Phil Murphy would not sign it due to unspecified legal problems with the bill’s language.
“We’re waiting for a written discussion from the governor’s office that really highlights where they feel like we’ve run afoul of the constitutionality and legality of what we’ve written,” Singleton said. He said he hopes the measure can be tweaked, passed and signed later this month. The governor’s office did not offer comment.