WATCH: Three Years After Sandy, Going Home Remains Elusive

(Nick Honachefsky stands in front of the area where his home in Normandy Beach once stood, in 2014. A year later, little has changed. Credit: Karen Wall)

It’s been three years since Nick Honachefsky packed up his Jeep and left his home in the Camp Osborn section of Brick Township to stay with a friend as Superstorm Sandy began to bear down on the Jersey Shore in full force.

Still unable to rebuild as wrangling continues over what will be approved for the area, Honachefsky -- who last year was moving from couch to couch, staying with friends and family on a rotating basis -- has finally rented a place for the winter, not far from the plot of land that is his piece of the Jersey Shore.

There has been some progress. One piece of Camp Osborn -- “The other Osborn. Not ours,” Honachefsky said -- owned by Robert Osborn has received approval from the Board of Adjustment to build 13 homes where 32 once stood. Honachefsky said the bayside portion of the remainder of the area -- his home was in the median of Route 35 -- has had a site plan tentatively approved, with more plans in the works that have been waiting for a resolution on Robert Osborn’s piece.

While he waits, however, Honachefsky has been traveling extensively for his work as a freelance fishing writer. But he was home at the Shore when Hurricane Joaquin skirted the coast earlier this month. It made him uneasy, he said.

He also has put together a video to mark the third anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, with raw images of the scene he encountered when he was first able to get back to where his home had stood.

The 3-minute video journal was ”put together from personal photos and video clips I shot during the storm; mixed with humor, insight and raw emotion,” he said.

“ It’s meant to be a reminder that thousands of Sandy survivors are still not home and we can’t let the mess be forgotten until it is cleaned up,” he said. “Please share it around to keep those still in need in mind.”