Two years after Sandy, even those back home unsatisfied

A Monmouth University Poll find the majority of New Jersey residents hardest hit by Superstorm Sandy are dissatisfied with the state’s recovery effort.

Poll director Patrick Murray says only one-in-three Sandy survivors believe New Jersey’s recovery effort is focused on helping people like them.

“We’ve only gone from 50 percent at year one to 60 percent of those at year two who’ve been able to get back in their homes,” Murray said. “That’s not a big movement. At this pace it’s going to take another five or six years before everybody is able to get back in their homes, and I think that’s what is  driving these numbers to be so dissatisfied.”

Murray says just 49 percent of those who have finished rebuilding Sandy-damaged homes are satisfied with the state’s efforts because it took so long.

“They’ve fallen so far behind and in some cases we’re finding a few people who had returned into their homes a year ago are back out again because their homes weren’t prepared properly or they weren’t elevated enough,” he said

Murray says many residents who are still displaced two years after the storm give the state poor marks for keeping them informed about where they stand in the process of getting financial assistance to rebuild.