There is good news for New Jersey homeowners who sustained considerable damage or lost their homes due to damage from Hurricane Sandy.  The Sand Paper tells MHProNews that the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs has posted another assistance program for low- and moderate-income homeowners who lost their homes in Hurricane Sandy. This program includes owners of mobile and manufactured homes.

The Low-to-Moderate Income (LMI) Homeowners Rebuilding Program is designed to provide reconstruction, rehabilitation and elevation assistance to homeowners of low- to- moderate income who were impacted by Superstorm Sandy. Their damaged or destroyed primary residence must have been located in one of the nine most impacted counties: Atlantic, Bergen, Cape May, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean or Union.

This program is additionally designed to serve LMI homeowners of “limited English proficiency” and owners of manufactured housing units, as well as those LMI homeowners who did not apply for the Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation, and Mitigation (RREM) Program. The LMI Homeowners Rebuilding Program began accepting applications on January 5, and the deadline to apply is March 4, at 5 p.m.

The Low-to-Moderate Income Homeowners Rebuilding Program is funded with $40 million in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds. Of the $40 million, $10 million is earmarked for substantially damaged manufactured homes. After the application period closes on March 4 at 5 p.m., a computer randomization will determine priority of grant eligibility. Homes that sustained damage exceeding more than 50 percent of the pre-storm value of the home are given priority. Another criteria states that the damaged home must have sustained Sandy-related damage of at least $8,000 or had more than 1 foot of water on the first floor.

To be eligible, homeowners must have registered with FEMA, and have owned and occupied the home at the time of the storm, and the home must have been the homeowner’s primary residence.

Any homeowner who received federal disaster recovery assistance for a previous federally declared flood disaster by law must have continuously maintained flood insurance since receiving the federal disaster recovery assistance.

To qualify as low- to moderate-income in Ocean County as of April 2014: for one person, the income limit is $48,850; for two, $55,850; for three, $62,800. ##

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(Photo Credit: FEMA)

 

Article submitted by Sandra Lane to – Daily Business News – MHProNews.