Testimonials
Application #2206 Mongillo, R. Milford, CT Unmet Need “My experience is describe as being extremely overjoyed with happiness and excitement; relief with an enormous stress lifted. I feel that now I can focus more time on my children and family without the constant worry of how I was going to be able to make all the necessary repairs and raise my house in order to continue living here. We are now able to remain living in the home we love so much. Thanks for all of your help. Thanks for making dreams our come true. I want to thank the team who are all so wonderful – Tom Arcari, Jeff Jahnke, Jim Russo, Suzanne Mazzotta and Ken Esposito.” · Rating of level of service and assistance: Extremely Satisfied · Rating of needs being addressed: Outstanding · Without CDBG-DR assistance: We couldn’t deal with another storm. We were considering moving
Application #2023 Raus, A. Stamford, CT Reimbursement “I just want to say thank you so much! Without your help I would not have survived thru all my debts that I built up by fixing our house. There was a lot involvement and gathering of materials, and I do thank all of the personnel involved in helping us.” · Rating of level of service and assistance: Extremely Satisfied · Rating of needs being addressed: Outstanding · Without CDBG-DR assistance: I would not be able to pay the contractors & repair my home
Application #2061 Gray, Z. Milford, CT Unmet Need & Reimbursement “Once I was approved from my grant things moved slowly but smoothly. I expect to be back in my house by December 1, 2015. My caseworker, Mark Gorka has been extremely helpful and supportive. My architects Rafael Amaya and Mike Fideo have been attentive and supportive, and I am pleased with my contractor Banton Construction. My house looks wonderful, thank you.” · Rating of level of service and assistance: Extremely Satisfied · Rating of needs being addressed: Outstanding · Without CDBG-DR assistance: I would not be able to repair my home, might have lost home, been displaced
Application #1957 Barnett, A. Bridgeport, CT Unmet Need “I am totally dissatisfied with the way my case was handled. The contractors did not do a proper estimate on my house. The total amount was over forty thousand dollars and I am not satisfied with the work. I think more could have been done with that amount of money.” · Rating of level of service and assistance: Extremely Dissatisfied · Rating of needs being addressed: Poor · Without CDBG-DR assistance: I would not be able to repair my home
Application #5035 Mazzella, C. Milford, CT Scatter-Sites “Everyone that I have been in contact with about my property has exceeded my expectations. They have made a very heart wrenching task bearable for me. John Rosenthal, always takes my call and calls me back same day if necessary.
The Architects have been very understanding about needs. No complaints. Very thankful for the help. I hate to think what would have happened to me without your assistance. I may have lost this house. I hear the talk from very ungrateful people, in the neighborhood about how they would do things better and I want you to know how thankful I am for your help. · Rating of level of service and assistance: Extremely Satisfied · Rating of needs being addressed: Outstanding · Without CDBG-DR assistance: Unable to work, would have lost the house
Application #1450 Finnegan, M. Norwalk, CT Unmet Need “This has been an incredible experience. Joy Okafor at DOH along with Capital Architects, David Holmes, Jason Pitts & crew have all been extremely supportive, thoughtful, available and skilled throughout the many detailed layers of the process. The volume of research and planning has been a bit overwhelming but an impressive process to be involved with. Two weeks ago my home was lifted, the foundation was started today and with each step I am beginning to feel more relaxed. Again and again, as we progress, I feel so blessed and fortunate to have my amazing team of professionals. This would have been quite frightening to try and accomplish on my own, and honestly I don’t think I would have done it. Thank you so much, it is difficult to adequately express the depth of my gratitude for the good fortune and generosity of this grant and the kindness, care and support that I am receiving.” · Rating of level of service and assistance: Extremely Satisfied · Rating of needs being addressed: Outstanding · Without CDBG-DR assistance: I would not be able to repair my home
Application #1605 Burks, J. Bridgeport, CT Reimbursement “I am ecstatic over my experience as a recipient of the CDBG-DR grant. It was amazing. Still, today I am glad knowing my roof is not only going to cave in on me; it’s not leaking!! All the water damage has been repaired. Thank you! · Rating of level of service and assistance: Extremely Satisfied · Rating of needs being addressed: Outstanding · Without CDBG-DR assistance: I would not be able to repair my home
Application #1332 Cummings, D. Fairfield, CT Reimbursement “First of all, I would like to thank everyone involved in the process. The process itself was a nightmare. The Communication between departments was terrible. I was given info from the Hazard Mitigation grant that said I had to complete all “Sandy” repairs by 10/2013 to be eligible for that grant. I had to take loans, max credit cards, etc., to complete repairs. One month later the CDBG grant said that if you completed repairs then you were a lower priority, I would have been a priority one, but was bumped to a priority four. During the process, the delays for the grant were endless. At one point I contacted HUD in Washington DC and they flew a group out in February to Hartford to help explain to CT how to administer the grant.” · Rating of level of service and assistance: Moderately Satisfied · Rating of needs being addressed: Excellent
Application #1965 Baldeo, S. Fairfield, CT Unmet Need “I am forever grateful for all the help we have received from this program. If we did not receive help we will still be using buckets in my house when it rains. Our windows are so much warmer and better. Thanks to a new house and new windows in my home. For all the people involved in this program thank God for them. Our sincere thanks, especially to Ms. Suzanne Mazzotta. Thanks. God bless them all. My family thanks the CDBG-DR program.” · Rating of level of service and assistance: Extremely Satisfied · Rating of needs being addressed: Outstanding · Without CDBG-DR assistance: My roof was leaking, now I have a new roof.
Application #1308 Dell’Abate, J. Old Greenwich, CT Reimbursement “Once Elizabeth Swenson was assigned to my case everything went smoothly. It took about 2 years and 10 months to finish and receive the money and prior to Ms. Swenson, I had to send and resend the same information over & over. Luckily, I am very organized. It would be difficult for most people to navigate through this process. Ultimately, I am happy with the result.” · Rating of level of service and assistance: Extremely Satisfied · Rating of needs being addressed: Excellent · Without CDBG-DR assistance: Repair of home was complete, the debt was overwhelming
Application #1208 Wemyss, T. Norwalk, CT Unmet Need “My wife and I lost our home due to Super Storm Sandy 10 days after getting married. We would not have been able to keep our home without receiving the grant. Joy Okafor and Mia Delaire were really helpful in navigating a fairly complicated process. Ultimately everything worked out as we were hoping it would and made a terrible situation much better. Thank you to the team at the CT Department of Housing.” · Rating of level of service and assistance: Moderately Satisfied · Rating of needs being addressed: Excellent · Without CDBG-DR assistance: I might have lost my home
Application #1260 Allen, A. Norwalk, CT Unmet Needs “It has been an incredibly long and frustrating process. I can’t even begin to detail all of my concerns with this program into a short testimonial at this point. · Without CDBG-DR assistance: Overtime I would be able to make the repairs to my home
Application #2429 Bartold, V. Stratford, CT Unmet Need “It took a while to get started, but when work was done I was satisfied. I might add that Mr. Gorka played a major role in the renovation of my home. A special thanks to Mr. Gorka.”
· Rating of level of service and assistance: Extremely Satisfied · Rating of needs being addressed: Outstanding · Without CDBG-DR assistance: Couldn’t deal with another storm, were considering moving
Application #1267 McCracken, L. Milford, CT Reimbursement “My family received monies as a rehabilitation. We made the decision not to wait to see if funding would be available since the status of grants was so confusing immediately following Sandy. I was first denied, but after I reached out again it was determined we were qualified. I had to do a lot of paperwork and gathering all of my receipts was time consuming but we were given funds in the end. I felt some of the rules were unfair and would have liked to receive more. We still have work to do but I am grateful for the monies received. I feel the program helped put our home back in order.” · Rating of level of service and assistance: Extremely Satisfied · Rating of needs being addressed: Average · Without CDBG-DR assistance: Helped us to continue to finish the work in our home
Application #1690 Weady, D. Guilford, CT Unmet Needs “To be fair, the assessment of my project has to be divided between the program assistance provided by the State and its physical execution by the general contractor. It goes without saying that my home could not have been elevated and removed from harm’s way without financial assistance from the State for which I am eternally grateful. Likewise personal involvement by the DOH personnel and the project oversight by DTC representatives provided great moral support for me throughout what was a very long and sometimes frustrating process, they were both very knowledgeable and wonderful people to work with. While they were equally as frustrated as I was with the often delayed progress of this project they seemed to have little control over the general contracting Co. The lone bidder who was awarded the construction contract left much to be desired, the project Forman was knowledgeable, compassionate and capable but seemed to be spread thinly over many projects. With only a skeletal representation from the general contractor, the subcontractors with minimal skills were employed and worked with no supervision at times resulting in many issues having to be done 2 -3 times causing delays with weeks passing before work was resumed. Workmanship with the licensed tradesman, plumbers, electricians, HVAC was much better although still taking much longer to complete a job. I do realize that I am fortunate in having DOH helping me. Thank you.” · Rating of level of service and assistance: Extremely Satisfied · Rating of needs being addressed: Outstanding · Without CDBG-DR assistance: I would not be able to repair my home
Application #2159 Levitz, J. Milford, CT Reimbursement “This was a very long and tiresome process. It was one of the most difficult and disappointing experiences of our lives. We have now exhausted all of our finances and as of today owe more money than our house is worth! We are stuck in a bad situation because we were misguided and misled! Fortunately we were able to borrow from the SBA, but unfortunately that was our only chance to get back into our home after 18 months of living like gypsies. And in the end we were penalized for that. We continued to fill out endless papers. A very long and disorganized process that we never want to experience again! After all was said in done we were only approved for $27,000 because they said they deducted money we got from SBA. We had hoped for the full grant. We know other people are getting that amount. So if we had held out and did nothing and left our property blighted then we too may have gotten the full grant which we felt we deserved. So what happened to that!! When we filled out the papers for the grant we were told that there was a reimbursement fund which we believed we applied for. We should have never borrowed from the SBA. We should have waited it out like other people to get the full grant. Now we can’t think about selling our house for 5 years, and feel like prisoners in our own home, which by the way we love, all over $27,000. We want to know where the money went, and to who!!!” · Rating of level of service and assistance: Extremely Dissatisfied · Rating of needs being addressed: Poor · Without CDBG-DR assistance: Not enough assistance in a timely manner
Application # 1275 DiLauro, M. Milford, CT Unmet Need “My experience with the project was stressful with a grateful outcome. For the most part I felt when dealing with either the contractor or the architect I never got a knowledgeable answer. Getting an idea of when this project would start was a constant moving date. Working with Mark Gorka was a great experience he was very knowledgeable and always pointed me in the right direction. I felt me being here every day to oversee the contractors and to help them get questions answered things would have turned out worse than they did. Ways to improve, a foreman representing the homeowner need to be around to supervise the sub-contractors.” · Rating of level of service and assistance: Not Answered · Rating of needs being addressed: Not Answered · Without CDBG-DR assistance: Not Answered
Application #2200 Fennell, G. Fairfield, CT Reimbursement “Working with Jim Dunn and Geri (Rice) was very pleasant. They were patient with me, and efficient. Thought there were a lot of steps, and that money was wasted. Overall, I am happy with the grant program.” · Rating of level of service and assistance: Extremely Satisfied · Rating of needs being addressed: Excellent · Without CDBG-DR assistance: Helped to replenish our accounts from repair expenses
Application # 1379 McNerney, M Norwalk, CT Unmet Needs & Reimbursement “It was a wonderful experience. I found everyone involved to be incredibly responsive and truly caring. Dave Mattei in particular was very helpful and responsive.” · Rating of level of service and assistance: Extremely Satisfied · Rating of needs being addressed: Excellent · Without CDBG-DR assistance: I may have been able to make some repairs, but more damage would have occurred in the meantime.
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