In the end, Gallo and her wife, Desiree, decided that they couldn’t wait any longer to start work on their home. They went ahead with a complete rebuild, paying for it with their retirement savings — all of their retirement savings. After the storm, Gallo said, they had promised their kids they would eventually move home, and that promise was a motivating factor.

“We had to take a couple of leaps of faith we weren’t prepared for,” she said. “We had money allocated for retirement, and now we have nothing left. It’s pretty scary to have nothing left for your future.”

City Councilman Anthony Eramo, another West End resident, found himself in a similar situation. He and his wife also emptied their retirement funds to rebuild their home on Florida Street, which he said, the family would finally return to next month.

“We’re really looking forward to moving back not just to our house, but to our block,” Eramo said. “We miss it there.” But, he added, “It all looks like a happy picture, but it’s a mixed blessing.”

The money the Eramos received from their insurance company and NY Rising wasn’t enough to raise and repair the home, which was flooded in both Tropical Storm Irene and Sandy. The decision to use their savings was a risky one, but Eramo said that they felt that restoring their home was too important to delay.

But many of those who didn’t — or couldn’t — afford to take that step and decided to wait for grant funding or insurance settlements to clear now find themselves no closer to getting home than they were months ago. Freeport resident Michelle Mittleman, founder of the advocacy group Sandy Victims Fighting FEMA, said that, after a brief period of progress, the NY Rising program had deteriorated over the past few months.

“We were seeing some positive movement at some point — good changes were made,” Mittleman said. “But since the change of the administrator, it’s all completely stalled. There’s no communication.”