STATEN ISLAND — As the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy nears, the city last week started work on a program to replace some decimated properties with modular homes, sources told DNAinfo New York.

In the pilot program, some of the Sandy-damaged properties around Staten Island and Queens will not be rebuilt, but rather replaced with prefabricated units. The goal is to speed up the process at the long-delayed and over budget Build It Back program.

"With the delivery of our first modular homes on Staten Island, Build It Back is improving and expanding the ways we build resilient housing in New York City," said Amy Peterson, director of the Mayor's Office of Housing Recovery Operations (HRO), in a statement.

"This option gets families home faster by cutting construction time in half and will serve as a model for storm recovery efforts across the country."

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