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Over the past month, a group of people who lost everything in Hurricane Sandy have been waging a battle with the city. They came from the most traumatized areas, and from the poorest economic backgrounds. The city had given 3,132 evacuees temporary housing in hotels in the aftermath of the storm, but then suddenly delivered April, then May deadlines to make them leave--isolating 156 Sandy victims who had nowhere to go, and no housing program to help them get there.

Read more: Homeless Hurricane Sandy Victims to Be Kicked Out of Hotels, Nowhere to Go

On Wednesday, a state supreme court judge granted members of this group's request for injunctive relief, allowing them time to stay in the hotels until the city helps them find permanent housing.

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World Economic Forum via Compfight cc

There's certainly a pessimistic way to interpret this story: According to a feature on CBS' "60 Minutes Overtime" with the Robin Hood Foundation's David Saltzman, Bill Clinton asked Led Zeppelin to play at the celebrity-studded 12-12-12 Hurricane Sandy relief concert, but the band declined. Bill Clinton, who got Yasser Arafat and Benjamin Netanyahu to meet in Maryland, could not get Plant, Page, Jones, and a Bonzo replacement together for Sandy relief.

Bill Clinton. Bill. Fugging. Clinton.

Saltzman, who tapped Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, and the Rolling Stones for the $50 million fundraiser, flew down to Washington with Harvey Weinstein to nudge Clinton into asking the surviving members of the band at a Kennedy Center Honors concert. According to Saltzman, Clinton was all for it. "I really wanna do this. This would be a fantastic thing. I love Led Zeppelin," Saltzman recalled in his best Arkansas drawl.

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When President Obama signed the $60 billion Sandy relief package into law back in February, the monies were given specific designations to where and what it would be spent on. The Environmental Protection Agency had claim to the post-Sandy environmental damages. As a result, the bill outsourced the power of the purse to the EPA for a large portion of the initial expenditures.

So, yesterday, they announced that New York would be granted $340 million to rebuild (and renovate) its waterwaste plants and water treatment facilities. Along with a $229 million payment to New Jersey, the EPA just dropped $569 million on the Tri-state area.

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Doug Kuntz/Climate Central

If you needed any more evidence to attest to the fact that Sandy was a real bitch, Climate Central released a study today showing where the storm overwhelmed the city's sewage treatment facilities. The findings are horrifying: 11 billion gallons of raw and partially treated sewage were dumped into the water, with six sewage spills larger than 100 million gallons in New York City alone.

Puke.

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On Monday night, a state supreme court ordered that the city temporarily halt its eviction of Hurricane Sandy victims from hotels. Slightly less than 200 households were to face their move-out deadline today, including 125 families that had nowhere to go, and 71 that the Department of Homeless Services claimed didn't want help.

Read more: Hurricane Sandy Victims Kicked Out of Hotels, Nowhere to Go

"One of those families was offered a three-quarters house, which the DHS agreed three years ago to stop placing families in because it's so dangerous," Councilman Brad Lander told the Voice after a hearing on Friday.

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At the beginning of this month, Sandy relief dollars ($1.77 billion, to be exact) from Washington began to trickle in to the metropolitan area. But there was a tiny issue: the money would only go to future development--not repairs for past damages.

Remember this? It was a policy that separated New York City from Long Island, where repair money was available to residents. By just crossing a tiny border, you were unable to receive money to pick up the pieces from Mother Nature's wrath, one that was totally out of your control.

Well apparently it pissed way too many people off. What a surprise!

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If yesterday's weather was any amazing indication, it's April. It's also the month when the first wave of Sandy relief dollars--$1.77 billion in total--will filter into New York City from the federal relief package passed by Congress in February. It is a wonderful time of the year for all sorts of reasons.

But, somehow, the situation has already hit its first roadblock. Yesterday, news came that there's a bit of a regional problem with the relief dollars heading our way.

As we have said before, New York City was awarded millions community development block grants, which are large chunks of cash flow meant to rebuild and retain the downed businesses and homes affected by the storm. However, in the application for these funds, our elected officials decided to (for whatever the reason) ban home- and business-owners from getting money back for damages and repairs. The money will only go toward future development.

That ban doesn't exist for the separate $1.7 billion Long Islanders will receive. And that major difference is pissing a ton of people off.

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At the beginning of February, we ran a post titled "Millions of Sandy Relief Dollars From Congress Will Arrive in April." The first installment of $1.7 billion from the $50 billion package passed by the Senate would start to trickle in with the warmer weather. And City Hall has laid out very specific spending plans, many of which involvecompetitions for the funds' future.

Well, now it's April. So the time is now for much-needed relief to take its course. But, first, the city needs some feedback.

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Last week, we reported on the first numbers coming from City Hall on just how we're gonna spend the $1.77 billion allotted to us by Washington for initial Sandy recovery efforts. Those figures showed that the money would basically be split into three main categories: housing redevelopment ($720 million), infrastructure improvement ($140 million) and, most importantly for this story, local business revival ($185 million).

The Mayor had two plans on the economic front. First, City Hall would hand out 'resiliency funds' to get downed companies back on their feet, which covers $40 million or so. Second, the remaining $145 million would go towards competitive bidding - a private sector option that has proven to be Mayor Bloomberg's economic planning go-to. We witnessed this move with the Roosevelt Island applied science school competition, the MTA app contest and those damn "micro-unit" apartments.

And, now, we're seeing this same gesture play out with Sandy relief money. Although the targeted millons is fragile to those in distress, the main gist of the proposed competitions aims to answer a worthwhile question: what will we do when the next Sandy hits?

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After a worrisome flood zone upgrade, this is definitely a good thing to hear.

With funds from the $50 billion Sandy relief package that successfully struggled through Congress, Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday morning how the first wave - $1.77 billion worth - would be implemented in recovery efforts. Of this amount, $720 million will go towards rebuilding destroyed homes, $185 million will be spent on reviving local businesses and $140 million will be used to improve damaged infrastructure.

For housing, the NYCHA will coordinate millions in an attempt to fix over 20,000 homes stricken by the storm. On the economic front, the City will hand out "resiliency" grants of $10,000, with $100 million in total, to jump start companies that have yet to recover. Another $80 million will be invested in long-term projects and competitive bidding awards. And, for infrastructure, the companies that kinda messed up a bit will receive $40 million to rebuild (and, hopefully, improve) infrastructure.

While all these plans sound great, there's still a waiting period for bureaucracy to get its shit together: the monies will not start appearing until late April and early May.

It may be a longer winter for some. But at least the City has a game plan.

(Jsurico15@gmail.com/JSuricz)