Superstorm Sandy devastated New York City unlike any other natural disaster in history. The physical effects of the storm ranged from destroyed homes and apartments to mass power outages, flooded subways, stores and office buildings. The storm affected almost 300,000 New Yorkers, took 49 lives, and damaged over 27,000 homes, leaving 2.1 million people without power immediately after the storm.1 Sandy also brought New Yorkers a myriad of legal challenges ranging from federal benefits and insurance claims to housing and employment issues. These legal issues disproportionately affected the poorest and most vulnerable communities in the city, highlighting and exacerbating the deeply rooted inequity in our city. Despite the arrival of billions of dollars in public and private emergency aid, the elderly, the disabled, undocumented immigrants, small businesses and low-income homeowners and renters suffered and are still suffering from unresolved legal issues. In this article, we survey Sandy’s legal legacy for New York City and its most vulnerable residents.
Displacement
The hardest hit by the storm were very low-income renters who made on average $18,000 per year.2 According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), this group comprised 55 percent of the surge victims, the majority of whom were housed in public housing units along the coasts of Coney Island, Red Hook, Alphabet City, and the Rockaways.3 Historically, FEMA’s primary focus has been on providing recovery services to owners of single-family homes. Therefore, FEMA was greatly limited in its ability to respond in New York City due to the unique urban housing stock.
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