Billy and Maria Clohosey had to be persuaded to elevate the home they'd just rebuilt after superstorm Sandy, a decision they'd later regret.

Because now the couple, along with their three teenage children, are waiting — indefinitely — for the day that they can finally go home.

When they do so, it will be after giving their entire $135,000 disaster grant to a contractor that the state now alleges was crooked, another $24,000 out of their own pockets to that same company and then up to another $90,000 more out of Maria's retirement savings to finish the job.

"Nobody understands unless you're in this situation," Maria Clohosey said outside of her Shark River Hills home this week.

Unfortunately, the Clohoseys are not alone. In fact, a survey of 500 Sandy-affected households shows more than half had problems with their homebuilder or house-lifter.

Twenty-two percent of those displaced by Sandy are still not back in their homes — nearly five years after they were uprooted by the storm, according to "The Long Road Home," a publication released this week by the New Jersey Resource Project in partnership with researchers from Rutgers University and Stockton University.

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More from the survey:

Half the respondents said the damage to their home was at least $150,000, but only 7 percent received that much from their flood insurance policies. Most of the flood insurance awards (67 percent) were $75,000 or less.

77 percent said they were either stuck in limbo without enough money to rebuild or had to borrow money to do so. One in 4 had dipped into retirement savings.

One-third had fallen behind on their mortgage or rent payments.

Four in five had hired their own contractor to rebuild or lift their homes and 56 percent of those homeowners reported having problems with that contractor.

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The Clohoseys say they are victims of CRA Construction, which was formed in May 2014 to cater to the demand for work financed by the state's $1.1-billion rebuilding initiative, the Rehabilitation, Reconstruction, Elevation and Mitigation (RREM) program.

CRA — and its owners individually, Christopher M. Aldarelli, Paul J. Logan and Steven N. Pisano — was sued by the state Attorney General in August for defrauding 12 homeowners of more than $1 million in RREM funds, which were part of the federal disaster aid grant.

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A total of 26 Shore homeowners, including the Clohoseys, are identified in Logan's September bankruptcy filing as interested parties.

"He's slick and he pulled the wool over our eyes, and he did it to a lot of other people too," Billy Clohosey said of Aldarelli, who could not be immediately reached for comment. "It's sad. I thought the guy was all right. I believed in him, but he took advantage of us — people who were just trying to get home."

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Russ Zimmer: 732-557-5748, razimmer@app.com