three years ago tropical storm Ida tore through New Jersey causing severe Inland flooding and destroying homes many of the homeowners who were hard hit are still feeling the burdens of the storm unable to move forward with fixing their properties and living in disarray a bill sitting on Governor Murphy's desk would offer some financial help but as senior correspondent Brenda Flanigan reports he's yet to sign it while the hurricane has passed and it's been 3 years it feels like we're still in the hurricane we're still struggling we're still fighting for what what's right 3 years after Ida Debbie Joseph's has partly repaired and refurnished her Manville home the last time we spoke in her bare living room only a year had passed since Ida's flood waters had inundated the Lost Valley section of town forcing her to flee in a police Rescue boat that trauma lingers but AB botched recovery only made it worse she says people are giving up what do you mean they're just walking away some people are just walking away because they're tired they're tired of fighting Joseph's borrowed 25,000 from the federal government and took out more personal loans just to make her home livable but FEMA's classified the house as substantially damaged so to sell it she needs to elevate it above potential flood waters but without a Federal grant she can't do that out of pocket she's stuck you can't sell your home can't sell it cannot sell it until you elevate it or the buyer agrees to elevate it now who's going to buy a house and then have to put another 100,000 in it they're at this point where they feel people don't hear them and they're invisible Jody Stewart's an advocate who's pushed for more government aid for Ida survivors she says Ida is still taking a human toll I'm watching families break up right now because of the lack of recovery it's not right it's not fair and I'll blame the government every time about it last September D officials decided not to spend any more federal aid dollars on fixing or elevating homes in Manville because it figured that Lost Valley would continue to flood instead it offered 78 residents here blue ACR buyouts they're not paying for you to lift it anymore so you have to pay for pay to lift it and also it's not really worth it because your house is still in the valley it's going to get flooded no matter what Lucas Rich says his family will probably take a blue acers buy out for their home it's a hard Choice some Lost Valley homes stand Frozen in Time partially raised but New Jersey's legislature unanimously passed a bill that would offer qualifying Ida victims a break on mortgages and foreclosures it allows some of these property owners that are still waiting for answers sometime without interest fees or penalties to kind of get their feet under them uh and hopefully some answers to questions they've been asking for 3 years now Republican senator Doug steinhardt backed the bill that had provide a year of mortgage and foreclosure forbearance for folks who got Federal disaster relief for damages Ida did to their homes who qualify with a household income that's less than 150% of median earnings for their zip code and who don't have significant savings on hand the governor still hasn't signed it so steinhardt says he just sent Murphy a letter urging for these families you hold the keys to their homes and families literally please let them in it's extremely frustrating and I try to express uh my frustration as politely as possible Democrat Troy Singleton a main Senate co-sponsor said in a statement every day week month and year of inaction is more time these families suffer financially and emotionally our members are disappointed in our governor they really feel he doesn't care where has he been it's a 12-month forbearance that will mean absolutely nothing to the higher ups but to us in Manville it would mean the world the governor's office hasn't responded to our request for comment unless Murphy vetos it the bill becomes a LW September 12th Joseph says that might help her sleep at night I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight News