Where are we going to go?': Flooding forces Queens family out of home of 34 years

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The block in Hollis, Queens, where Anita Hack and her family moved in 1992 is on the frontline of New York City’s losing battle against disastrous floods.

Five years ago, two tenants drowned in a basement apartment across the street from Hack’s home when Hurricane Ida deluged the neighborhood. In May, Mayor Zohran Mamdani visited Hack and her neighbors along 183rd Street after filthy stormwater lapped against the front porch windows and reached her adult son’s chest as he waded toward the house.

Now the Hacks are on the verge of losing their two-story home after the latest storm on Aug. 20 destroyed a foundation wall in their basement. The city’s Department of Buildings vacated the property and, days later, issued an order to demolish the century-old structure. Now, the family’s lone asset — the home is valued at $800,000 on Zillow — may be worthless. They’re on the verge of homelessness.

“ We keep getting these floods and nobody's coming out here to help us,” said Hack, 62. “Where are we going to go? We don't have the money for that.”

The devastating impact of Hurricane Ida prompted successive mayoral administrations to propose plans for purchasing properties like Hack’s in order to compensate the owners, demolish flood-prone buildings and prevent future disasters. But five years later, the city has yet to buy a single home. The apparent lack of urgency comes as the region just went through a particularly rainy summer, with Central Park recording 3.5 inches more rainfall than average.

Mamdani and his office of Climate & Environmental Justice finally began fielding “expressions of interest” for a buyout program known as Resilient Acquisitions earlier this summer.

Hack said she filled out the city’s new buyout form when the portal opened, but has not heard back. Now she fears it may be too late.

“ They wanted to buy out the community… and they are still not doing anything,” Hack said of the city’s response. “Now we have to evacuate. We have to move.”

The Hacks’ home, like much of the neighborhood, was built atop what was once a small body of water known as Rock Hollow Pond.

Water continues to pool in the shallow valley along 183rd Street every time it rains, as Gothamist detailed in 2021 . Neighbors have perfected a grim routine whenever rain begins to fall, checking in on one another, moving their cars to nearby hilltops and scraping trash off catch basins.

“ When it rains, we don't sleep at night,” Hack said.

Hack and her husband purchased the two-story home 34 years ago, a few months after their son was born. The gray clapboard home has housed generations of family members, including Hack’s two young grandsons. A basketball hoop still stands in the corner of the large concrete back patio, near a deflated football and debris swept into the lot by the late August storm surge.

She said the persistent floods have destroyed heirlooms and artifacts, including her son’s wedding album and nearly all her own parents’ photographs from their native Guyana.

Hack’s videos from the May and August floods show torrents of water pouring into the empty basement, which the family long ago cleared of valuables. Sneakers, books and an unopened delivery package float through the living room.

Building inspectors deemed the home structurally unsound and at risk of collapse in August. The most recent flood destroyed the foundation wall and cracked joists supporting the first floor, according to an inspection report. The property is now surrounded by green plywood construction fencing.

Homeowners like Hack began calling for a buyout program in September 2021, just days after Ida. Former Mayors Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams both endorsed buyout strategies in the ensuing years, before Mamdani opened an online portal.

But Hack said she has no idea if a buyout is still an option, and worried that the city may only offer the price of a soggy lot, if they purchase the property at all.

"The city is working closely with impacted communities in Hollis to understand their needs and explore solutions that can help residents build long-term resilience,” said Oluwatona Campbell, a spokesperson and chief of staff for the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice. “We are listening to homeowners and community members about their interest in voluntary buyouts and evaluating potential pathways forward."

Department of Buildings spokesperson David Maggiotto said agency officials are working with the family “to determine the plans to properly secure the structurally compromised building,” and said officials would review any plans the family submits to avoid demolition.

Hack’s son Jonathan said an engineer who the family hired to see if the house was salvageable walked away from the project last week.

Environmental experts say flood problems are only intensifying. The climate crisis has fueled more frequent storm surges that overwhelm outdated sewer infrastructure that wasn’t built to handle increasingly routine flooding.

City officials are also proposing buyouts to residents of a swampy section of Flushing devastated by Hurricane Ida and the low-lying neighborhood along the Queens-Brooklyn border known as the Hole .

“Every neighborhood in New York City could flood,” said Amy Chester, director of the environmental policy organization Rebuild by Des...

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