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By Jerry Carino
Diana and Bob Quaranta got a much-awaited call Wednesday night: Their long-running fight for fellow superstorm Sandy victims who are on the hook for dreaded “clawbacks” achieved a breakthrough.
The Point Pleasant residents lost their home to the 2012 storm and needed five years to rebuild as they battled recalcitrant insurance companies and the red-tape nightmare of government storm-recovery policies.
After moving back home, they got stuck with an $80,000 bill from the federal government, an attempted “clawback” of federal aid they received.
This week, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Disaster Recovery agreed to waive clawbacks for low- and moderate-income families, as well as those who faced foreclosure or lost loved ones.
The Quarantas appeared at a news conference Friday morning with U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., whose advocacy helped secure the waiver, to hail the development.
“We’re so pleased,” Diane Quaranta told the Asbury Park Press. “I hope in the future, survivors of disasters like this don’t have to go through what we went through.”
In a nutshell, the overpayments (called duplication of benefits) took place because in Sandy’s wake there was virtually no government guidance on how to navigate the various streams of aid, and displaced homeowners understandably took help from wherever they could get it.
“We have had 10, 11 years of torment and trying to get the right information about this,” Diana Quaranta said. “When you’re traumatized with something like a Sandy storm, it’s very difficult to get information. And the information you do get is different depending on who you talk to.”
There are more than 900 New Jersey households that owe a total of $31 million in Sandy clawbacks — an average of $34,000 per household.
“It’s ridiculous that the government would try to take back disaster aid from people who have died, had their property foreclosed on, or are just scraping by after getting wiped out by Sandy,” Pallone said in a statement. “After years of effort, the federal government is finally giving New Jersey families the relief they deserve.”
Clawback relief has been a major focus of the New Jersey Organizing Project, which sprang up after Sandy to help devastated homeowners. HUD’s newly announced policy, which caps relief at $27,000, also outlines procedures to prevent duplications of benefits after future disasters. Advocates consider it to be an important step toward fixing a broken disaster relief system.
“This is major progress for us and low- and moderate-income Sandy families who will see forgiveness, survivors who have had to file for bankruptcy or are in foreclosure, and those heartbreaking cases where Sandy survivors have passed away,” Joe Mangino, board president of the New Jersey Organizing Project, said in a statement. “These are the folks who need the life jacket the most. It will mean everything.”
The Quarantas have called themselves and fellow Sandy survivors “guinea pigs” in the reshaping of federal disaster relief policy. After opens in a new windowthe Asbury Park Press outlined their plight in October, they received an outpouring of support from shocked friends.
“A lot of people didn’t realize people were still having trouble from Sandy,” Bob Quaranta said. “It’s been the storm that kept giving.”