But more hard-hit residents are reporting satisfaction with the state's largest housing recovery program.
A greater share of residents participating in New Jersey's largest Hurricane Sandy home rebuilding program now report they are satisfied with the state's recovery effort, with a sharp uptick among those who have finished construction, according to a new poll.
But a large majority of residents significantly affected by the October 2012 storm still give poor marks to the state's post-Sandy efforts, the Monmouth University survey found.
More than 60 percent of Sandy victims said they were somewhat or very dissatisfied with the state's recovery efforts so far, according to the poll, and roughly two-thirds of those surveyed said that people like themselves had largely been forgotten in the recovery.
"In many hard hit residents' opinions, the state has simply not done enough to adequately address their most pressing needs," said Tim Tracey, the project director for Monmouth University's Sandy Recovery Survey. "Three years removed from Sandy, the state still receives more negative than positive marks for the job they've done in the recovery effort."
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Over the last three years, the Monmouth University survey has tracked the level of satisfaction among 460 residents who were displaced for at least a month or sustained at least $8,000 in damage to their home. Because of the methods used to recruit respondents, the results of the survey cannot be statistically projected to the larger population of all Sandy victims in New Jersey.
In 2013, the survey found 65 percent of those residents said they were either somewhat or very dissatisfied with the state's recovery efforts. That jumped to 67 percent in 2014 before falling to 61 percent this year. The share of residents who said they feel forgotten in the recovery fell from 77 percent in 2013 to 65 percent this year.
The survey also found an increasing level of satisfaction among those receiving funding through the Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation and Mitigation program, or RREM. The program has faced sharp criticism from residents, housing advocates and lawmakers for long delays, lost paperwork and labyrinthine regulations but officials have made efforts to streamline the process.
Lisa Ryan, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Community Affairs, said nearly 2,000 of the more than 8,000 homeowners in RREM have completed construction.
"Also, in an average week, 50 RREM homes finish construction," Ryan said.
Some 46 percent of those surveyed who had been approved for help through RREM expressed satisfaction with the state's recovery effort this year, up from 35 percent in 2014 and 29 percent in 2013.
Among those who had finished rebuilding through RREM, 64 percent said they were satisfied, up from 41 percent in 2014 and 34 percent in 2013.
Among those who were approved for RREM but are no longer in the program, only 20 percent said they were satisfied with the state's recovery effort, a share unchanged from last year and down from 32 percent in 2013.
The results from this survey are based on interviews completed between August and September 2015.
Erin O'Neill may be reached at eoneill@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LedgerErin. Find NJ.com on Facebook.