NEW YORK (AP) — A city home-repair program has been sprinting to meet a self-imposed deadline to signal a turnaround in Superstorm Sandy recovery, and officials say they’re positioned to pass their test of rebuilding both houses and confidence.

The milestone for the Build It Back initiative — 500 construction projects started and 500 reimbursement checks sent by Labor Day — represents a fraction of the estimated 15,000 to 20,000 homes eligible for fixing or reimbursements, and concerns about the program’s pace linger among some New Yorkers still dealing with damage. But Mayor Bill de Blasio has portrayed the benchmarks as jump-starting a stalled program that hadn’t fixed a single house or dispatched any checks when he took office in January.