A small black picture frame sits on a dresser in the Balderas family’s brand-new home in Staten Island. It holds a photo of a light pink house, the first Evelia Balderas owned after immigrating from Mexico, the one she raised her three children in and the one that flooded with more than a foot of water during superstorm Sandy five and a half years ago.
“They love that picture,” Evelia Balderas, 45, said of her children, now 24, 21 and 19. “They grew up here … they don’t know any other place.”
The new house, in the same spot on Nugent Avenue in South Beach, isn’t pink, but it is one of about 50 homes built through the city’s Build It Back modular construction program so far.
When Sandy hit, the Balderas family wasn’t able to leave. They watched the street outside turn into a “river,” and quickly moved as many of their belongings as possible to the second floor of their home as water filled the first floor.
When it was over, the bottom floor of their home was severely damaged. The city’s Rapid Repair program, launched by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, made some fixes, allowing them to stay in the house, but they couldn’t afford to fully repair the bottom floor. Evelia Balderas’ cousin built a kitchen on the second level and the family lived there for the next several years. During that time, Balderas’ granddaughter, Nathalie, was born.
Balderas, a housekeeper, applied with the Build It Back program in 2013, becoming one of thousands of homeowners hoping for help from the city. Three years later, inspections determined that structural issues with her home — built in 1925 — prevented it from being elevated to meet new flood protection standards. Instead, the house had to be completely rebuilt.
“I was in shock,” Balderas said. The news was bittersweet: her home held so many memories, and she never expected to live in a new house.
In 2017, following years of delays and a failure to meet Mayor Bill de Blasio’s promise that all single-family Build It Back homes would be completed by the end of 2016, the city began exploring the possibility of modular construction.
“One of the reasons for going forward with the modular program was to cut the time down,” said Anthony Romeo, a project executive with Build It Back.
By building “modules” off-site, shipping them and putting them together on the building site, construction time is cut by about 50 percent, Romeo said. About 100 homeowners in Queens and Staten Island, including Evelia Balderas, were eligible and agreed to the program.
The Balderas’ beloved pink home was demolished in September 2017, and shortly after, four modules were placed and set up. Finally, in April, the family got to move into its new residence.
“It’s incredible,” Balderas said, sitting at a table in the new living space. The white walls are decorated with paintings by her daughter, Gabriela, picture frames that were packed away for years are on display, and a pink dollhouse sits in the corner surrounded by other toys for her granddaughter, now 4.
Nathalie now has much more space to run around, Balderas said. “Now she’s everywhere. She’s going upstairs and we’re looking — ‘Where’s Nathalie?’”
Despite the years of living on one floor of their home and waiting for repairs only to learn that her house had to be demolished, Balderas considers herself lucky.
“I feel lucky because I’m here with my kids,” she said.
As of May 1, 99.6 percent of homeowners in the Build It Back program have a construction start, a reimbursement check or an acquisition. About 94 percent of homeowners have received their full benefit, including completed construction, full reimbursement or acquisition, the city said.
