There’s no place like home.
A Coney Island woman who has been living in a temporary apartment since Hurricane Sandy flooded her house in 2012 finally got to go home on Aug. 2.
The home-building organization Habitat for Humanity repaired the W. 29th Street home as part of its Superstorm Sandy Recovery Program. The lucky homeowner said she was floored when she saw the finished product.
“My mouth dropped open, and I thought ‘Oh my god,’ ” said Mildred Davis. “It was beautiful. It was the first time I slept under my roof since the hurricane.”
Habitat for Humanity rebuilt the home’s entire first floor, which includes the kitchen, living room, and a bathroom — and even took on the backyard, she said.
The house is even better than it was before the storm, because Habitat installed upgraded appliances and fixtures, as well as a few other nice touches, Davis said.
“I used to have carpet but they put down beautiful wood floors,” she said.
Habitat workers began repairing the property in May after completing 36 Sandy-related projects on Staten Island, and Davis is the first Brooklynite to get help.
The program mainly serves individuals who did not receive insurance money or federal disaster aid, and the organization plans to repair 20–30 homes in Coney Island alone, said Olga Jobe, Habitat’s director of real estate.
The organization expanded its activity into Brooklyn after a Park Slope pastor approached the organization about the number of people struggling to rebuild in Coney Island, Jobe said.
Habitat has already begun work on a second home in Coney Island, and a third project is in the pipeline. The number of repair projects Habitat can complete depends on funding, but the organization will move on to other hard-hit Brooklyn neighborhoods if it can garner the resources, Jobe said.
“There’s always a possibility to expand,” she said. “Right now we want to really concentrate on helping those that have been displaced in Coney Island.”
