Some Sandy-battered homes may qualify for funds to elevate structures

Homeowners along the Jersey Shore struggling to recover from Hurricane Sandy are considering how, even if, they’ll rebuild.

 

If damage from Sandy added up to at least 50 percent of a home’s value, owners who had flood insurance could qualify for a federal grant of up to $30,000 to elevate their home.

The grant money might encourage owners to raise their homes to avoid flooding from future storms, says Henry Kelly, president of the Kelly Group which has been building homes on the barrier islands for 30 years.

“The people that I’ve talked to on the island seem to be willing to do that,” he said. “If they think about it, they would realize that going forward, it will probably cost them a lot more money for homeowners insurance, if they can get insurance, if they don’t do something to try and alleviate the problem that we faced during this storm.”

Kelly says some residents along the Shore inherited their homes and can’t afford to rebuild.

Depending on the size and style of a home, he says elevating it could cost as little as a few thousand dollars or as much as tens of thousands of dollars.