Rate of homelessness, emergency shelter use trending up on Long Island

Rebecca Fischer said she had never lived in a homeless shelter before this year, when she and her young son entered the Suffolk County Department of Social Services system.

Fischer, who's originally from the Centereach area, said she was previously renting from a friend and paying only the cost of utilities until the friend lost the home through foreclosure. The change has taken a toll on her mental health and since then her 6-year-old son has been behaving poorly and using foul language.

"I've been dragging my son around for the last couple weeks with a bunch of plastic bags," said Fischer, 37. "How do you think he feels?"

Fischer is among those seeking emergency shelter in Nassau and Suffolk counties, where demand is edging back to pre-pandemic levels as low-income Long Islanders, some of whom have never previously been homeless, are finding it increasingly difficult to get by.

An expired state moratorium on evictions and defunct pandemic rental assistance programs have contributed to the jump, according to advocates. But they mostly attribute the persistent issue to the rising cost of rent and the lack of affordable housing for low-income people.

"The housing that exists, the market rates have skyrocketed," said Greta Guarton, executive director of the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless, which tracks the number of homeless in both counties. "We wouldn't need emergency shelters if there was sufficient permanent affordable housing."

Guarton said calls to the organization’s hotline for those seeking services have doubled in the last year.

The organization served 4,032 households in 2023, up from 3,824 in 2019 and 3,070 in 2021, when the COVID-era eviction moratorium was in place.

Increased demand

Guarton also attributed the increase to community resistance to new affordable housing complexes. She said the people calling for help may have a federal housing voucher and in some cases an income, but many tell her they can’t afford to stay in their homes following a rent spike.

Average rent costs grew from $1,808 to $2,301 in Suffolk between August 2017 and August 2024, according to data compiled by the rental listing website Apartment List.

Suffolk County officials said they have seen about a 10% spike in shelter need compared with 2023, from 1,958 people in the system in August 2023 to 2,172 last month.

"Many of these homeless individuals have been growing up in Suffolk County," said Suffolk Department of Social Services Commissioner John Imhof, who's now nearly six months on the job. "We want to try and help individuals understand that these are their former neighbors and friends who have suddenly come across really hard times."

Imhof and other advocates said the increase is unrelated to the influx of migrants housed in New York City shelters, which has strained the safety-net system.

Richard Koubek, chair of the Suffolk County Legislature’s Welfare to Work Commission, said the group has been studying the issue and on Friday released a report calling for a countywide response to the lack of low-income housing. Koubek said a person would have to earn $90,000 a year to comfortably afford the $2,508 fair market rent for a two-bedroom unit in Suffolk, a figure determined by the office of U.S. Housing and Urban Development.

Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine said the recent increase in those seeking assistance is a "troubling sign."

"The county is committed to providing all of the assistance it can, and look forward to working with state agencies to provide more opportunities for these families to end their most difficult and heartbreaking challenges," he said in a statement.

Tough times for many

Finding steady work has been tough for Fischer as she does not have reliable transportation or after-school care for her son. She said she has not yet found an apartment within the $1,395 monthly budget allotted to her by the Department of Social Services.

"When my [now 14-year-old] daughter was a baby, I didn't have these problems," she said. "Rent was much more affordable. I had a two-bedroom for $1,100."

Lou Colantino has called a Melville hotel home since 2022 and is on the verge of homelessness. He described becoming "destitute" after he ended an 18-year relationship with the woman he says financially supported him and with whom he shared a West Babylon apartment. He is squatting in the room and is not technically homeless.

Colantino, who is unemployed, spends his days eating frozen microwavable meals, watching television and ruminating on every regret he has made in his 68 years. He collects $1,000 per month in Social Security benefits, hasn’t paid the $1,076-per-week hotel rent in months — after his brother prepaid for his stay. He has been asked to leave, although the hotel has not formally served him an eviction notice.

"This is my own fault for being an adult who is 68, who should have known better back when I was younger, but so be it," he said. "I feel like a complete failure, a loser. But does that mean that I'm not a human being?"

Cost to counties

It costs Suffolk an average of $273 per night to house a family and $195 for single adults, or about $8,190 per month and $5,850 per month, respectively, according to Suffolk Department of Social Services.  The county contracts with nonprofit providers who often operate shelters in converted motels.

Romaine spokesman Mike Martino said those costs include wraparound services provided by caseworkers and the shelter, which can include food and child care services. He said the cost of rent, security, utilities and liability insurance also contributes to the costs. The bulk of the funding is provided by the federal and state government and administered by the counties, according to Welfare to Work report.

Koubek said it likely would cost less money to build permanent housing for the unhoused rather than putting them in temporary shelters. He noted that such projects can face public opposition, such as a proposed 50-unit affordable Southampton housing development, which was criticized for its density and the traffic it could have caused. That proposal was rejected by the Southampton Town Board in June.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman's administration declined to answers questions for this story and refused access to data and to officials in the county's Department of Social Services. Newsday asked for various data sets, including a monthly tally for requests for emergency shelter, as well as the number of placements.

Newsday also sought the number of providers the county has contracted with and whether the county plans to contract with motels and hotels.   

Nassau County Comptroller Elaine Philips in August released a report showing the county's number of homeless cases returned to pre-pandemic levels with the number of overnight stays 22% higher last year than in 2019. The high demand has the county paying more to place individuals and families in hotels and motels, according to the report. 

Because county-funded shelters are at capacity, individuals and families seeking a place to stay on an emergency basis are placed in local motels and hotels, paying the nightly rate.

In 2023, Nassau spent more than $18 million placing 1,145 individuals and families — 53% of the total cases that year — in 26 hotels and motels in the county, compared to 37% in 2019.

Payments to hotels for shelters went from $11.4 million in 2019 to $31.4 million in 2023, a 175% increase, according to the comptroller's report. 

The report recommended the county negotiate contracts or prepay motels and hotels in the same way they do with other providers of emergency shelters.

Suffolk County has not released a similar report.

Lack of infrastructure

Chaplain Steven Crawford, founder of Homeless Long Island operated out of the Abundant Life Church of God in Holbrook, said his phone "is ringing all day long" with people facing eviction. But the infrastructure to house people on a temporary basis is "slim to none," he said.

He described a cycle where the rising cost of living has put Long Islanders out of their homes as they face communities reluctant to open shelters because of the stigma associated with homelessness. 

"They would rather these people be homeless in the street than in a shelter near their house," said Crawford, who is calling on elected officials to think about using vacant space in industrial and office parks for various forms of housing to minimize any community opposition (Building and zoning issues are largely regulated by the towns).

Crawford said there are few places for residents to turn.

"Most shelters out there will say they only get referrals through DSS," he said. "That's the problem. We need private individuals and nonprofits who will open shelters."