News: Long Island Handles Homelessness
(Long Island, N.Y.) Both long and short-term effects of the national recession have led to bigger problems for those aiming to combat homelessness on Long Island. Rising foreclosure rates correspond with an increase in the amount of Long Islanders relying on housing assistance. Between federal aid and local initiatives, Long Island helpers are making efforts to shelter the needy in their communities.
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development was equipped with a $216 million budget to spend on roughly seven-hundred nationwide programs for the homeless. About fifteen million dollars was given to projects in New York State. Long Island organizations received an estimated $1.2 million in federal housing aid.
Over three-quarters-of-a-million dollars was spent on Catholic Charities, which is an organization based in Freeport that houses veterans and their families. A Huntington organization called the Family Service League received over a quarter-of-a-million dollars to expand their assistance to singles. The Long Island Coalition for the Homeless, an organization based in Garden City, received almost $80K in federal aid to create an online database.
The database is designed to provide nonprofits with information they can use to keep track of their homeless clients and help target their specific needs. Some of the information included will determine the number of users served and where they came from. All of the information will function to help develop better programs and to apply for more grants.
Under the Obama Administration, $1.4 billion was spent in January for emergency housing and like programs, and reports stated that the administration is asking for a twenty-five percent increase in the budget for next year. The budget increase was given during a time of crisis when the nation was showing no signs of an economic recovery and decrease in foreclosures. The nationwide programs will cater to housing, job training, and reaching out to those on the street.
While critics of the proposed budget increase claim that too much government money is being spent in providing assistance, consider this:
Long Island statistics from November of 2009 showed a thirty percent increase in homelessness and a forty percent increase in the amount of Suffolk County residents dependent on food stamps. During this time, all eighteen of Suffolk County’s homeless shelters were filled to capacity. Local motels sheltered the excess of clients, some of whom wrote of their desperation in letters to President Obama.
Statistics from 2004 show that Suffolk County’s Department of Social Services estimated there were 435 homeless families and 222 homeless singles living in the county. The statistics from the previous year show 524 families and 144 singles. These statistics only reflect the homeless who applied for assistance and met the official criteria for aid.
Helpers believe that many more homeless live on Long Island but simply don’t come to take the handouts. Workers at a nonprofit organization based in Riverhead estimate that sometimes thirty people a day visit the soup kitchen at a nearby assistance location. Some helpers estimate that in previous years, at least one new homeless person benefited from their programs each day.
It’s typical of the homeless to move from place to place within county campgrounds, being that there is a seven-night limitation to their stay. This and many other issues have prompted twenty-one new shelters to be opened within less than a two year period around Long Island.
It’s true that substance abusers and the mentally ill comprise the largest sector of Long Island’s homeless, but many helpers question whether drug use and the progression of illnesses came before or after the loss of shelter. Currently, the homeless are eligible to receive enough money for food and sustenance, but not enough for the cheapest forms of long-term housing on Long Island. Consider the difficulties of maintaining a job with the added stresses of being on the streets.
Veterans, persons with HIV/AIDS, and victims of domestic abuse also comprise Long Island’s homeless. It’s clear that the differences among these groups of people should mean that they are targeted differently and afforded different measures of assistance. Perhaps more efforts and resources should be focused on homeless minorities, evaluating the priority given to individuals, and finding jobs and permanent housing for only those with the ability to maintain them.
