Vol. 76/No. 44      December 3, 2012

Far Rockaway, a working-class neighborhood with a large proportion of African-American and immigrant residents, was one of the city’s hardest hit areas.

Blancarosa Escobar, 18, a high school student, told the Militant that her family lost everything in the basement and still doesn’t have electricity. “We lost our jobs, too. I worked at the supermarket in Breezy Point, mom is a house cleaner and my father worked in the bagel store.”

According to the Labor Department, the number of people who applied for unemployment compensation rose by 78,000 the week after Sandy, largely due to increases in states hit by the storm.

Across the street from Escobar’s house several houses had burnt down. “It’s kind of hard. My school was damaged, so we’re bused a few towns away. I’m not complaining, we’re getting some help, but we can’t live a normal life,” she said.

Chris Newman, a student in New Paltz, told the Militant that his family’s house in Breezy Point, further out in the Rockaways, was flooded the night Sandy came ashore. His parents now live with his aunt in Brooklyn. “They don’t know when they’ll be able to move back. To get in we have to prove we’re residents, we have to show IDs.”

City officials confirmed Nov. 18 that 200 homes will be demolished in the worst hit areas of Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. The Department of Buildings has so far ruled 891 homes unsafe to enter.

On an ordinary night more than 50,000 homeless people are quartered in the city’s municipal shelter system, among them 20,000 children. City Hall estimates that 40,000 additional people will now need to be relocated.

Thousands of people still have no heat as temperatures at night fall below 40 degrees. The slow response from the city government, utility companies and housing agencies have sparked several protests.

Residents in the Knickerbocker Village on Manhattan’s Lower East Side held a rally Nov. 10 demanding generators and heaters. They threatened a rent strike if they didn’t get a break in payments. The housing complex is owned by AREA Property Partners and home to more than 1,600 people.

Three days later building management conceded to a rent refund. Two of three boilers in the basement were fixed and all but 50 apartments had their electricity restored.

Ruth Robinett and Lea Sherman contributed to this article.  
 
 
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