The path has not been smooth, but Road Home officials said Thursday they’re picking up the pace in getting hurricane victims back on their feet.

“We're continuing the momentum, we've seen the program for quite some time now, and continuing to move people to closing as fast as possible,” said Gentry Brann, a Road Home spokesperson.

Officials said they've closed more than 85,000 applications for property damage reimbursements. The agency aims to close 5,000 more by January 1 in order to avoid a $150,000 penalty from the state. Road Home officials said they're confident it would happen.

But even with that progress, some aren't satisfied, like Frank Silvestri, co-chair of the Citizens Road Home Action Team, a watchdog group designed to hold the recovery program accountable.

“People shouldn't lose sight of the fact that, unfortunately, in order to make that deadline, ICF has been closing the easiest files first,” Silvestri said, “which means that there are a number of people who have been in the system quite a long time, some going back as far as September of '06, who still haven't seen their grant.”

Silvestri said it's time for Road Home to focus on those families first and use a more organized approach to closing applications.

“Frankly, when you get into the system and when you get out, there's no connection necessarily,” Silvestri said.

But a Brann said of the estimated 150,000 "eligible" families, many of them have work to do on their end to get their money.

Road Home officials said many homeowners cannot close because they're either trying to sell their property to the state and they don't have clear title, or they're having problems satisfying their mortgage.

“We can't close those applications until the homeowners take an action that allows us to then take ownership of the home, so there are many people who are in that situation right now,” Brann said. “There are non-profit organizations that the state set up free of charge to the homeowners to help them with this issue, but right now, it's a pretty critical issue.”

Road Home officials said they expect to close 10,000 more applications in the month of January. In the meantime, the Citizens Road Home Action Team said it will continue to keep pressure on the program until all the money is handed out.