From rotting floors to a hot bubble bath: Shinnecock woman can't wait for new house
For more than a decade, Janelle Moore has lived in a trailer partially covered by an orange tarp, on land that has been passed down through her family for generations in the Shinnecock Indian Nation.
For most of that time, she had no running water, no electricity and relied on propane-powered heaters to keep herself warm. She said it's been a constant fight to keep moisture out of the home, which has led to mold and mildew that irritate her sinuses.
"The floor was basically rotting out," she said. "I was not living in an environmentally safe place at all."
But in just a few weeks, she will have a gleaming white single-level house, just steps from her trailer. Moore, 42, will move in for free thanks to a partnership between the nonprofit Hamptons Community Outreach and Sag Harbor homebuilder Alex Forden.
During an interview outside her home in January, Moore spoke of her dreams for the first days in her house amid the sounds of saws buzzing and nail guns firing, as workers added doors, trim and base molding inside.
“I’m so excited to sit in my bathtub and soak in the bubbles. To cook in my own kitchen — just to have my own something,” Moore said through tears.
Moore is the latest recipient of support from the nonprofit, which helps people with low incomes and health concerns as well as the elderly pay for home repairs.
In the past 3½ years, Hamptons Community Outreach has helped fund renovations of 65 houses on the East End, about three-quarters of which were on Shinnecock territory, said Marit Molin, founder and executive director of the Bridgehampton-based charity.
The Shinnecock Nation lacks the funding to cover major housing repairs for residents in need and prioritizes spending its limited resources on helping elders, people with disabilities and veterans, leaving younger tribal members with less aid, said Phillip Brown, the tribal nation's housing director.
The support from Hamptons Community Outreach helps fill a critical gap to help low-income residents repair homes, he said.
With about 1,600 enrolled tribal members, the Shinnecock Nation struggles to attract federal housing aid because of its small size relative to other tribal nations in the U.S., Brown said. Some of the largest tribal nations have hundreds of thousands of members.
Out of $1.1 billion in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development block grants distributed to tribal nations last year, the Shinnecock received $73,000, according to an annual report from the housing department.
"What can that really do?" Brown said. "There's still a tremendous need."
For Moore and many Shinnecock people, securing a mortgage to buy or renovate a home isn’t an option. Because their land is held collectively by the nation and cannot be mortgaged or sold to non-tribal members, Shinnecock homeowners can't leverage their property’s wealth like other Long Islanders. Instead, houses often change hands within the community for as little as $30,000 to $60,000, Brown said.
Most of the homes on Shinnecock territory, including Moore's, are located on a 900-acre peninsula known as Shinnecock Neck. It's south of Montauk Highway and just east of Stony Brook University's Southampton campus. Of the 1,600 enrolled members, about half live on the neck, which stretches into Shinnecock Bay and Heady Creek, nearly touching Southampton's Meadow Lane — home to some of the most expensive mansions in the country.
The poverty rate in the territory, at 20.6%, is nearly triple that of Suffolk County, according to U.S. Census data.
Moore is not alone among Shinnecock people who need funding for home repairs to address living conditions that threaten their health, said Linee Matthews, the housing department's assistant director.
"Mold is one of our biggest issues here on the Neck," she said.
The median income among Shinnecock families is about $66,000, roughly half of the $124,000 median household income for Suffolk County families, according to Census data.
The department's 2024 housing report shows there are 260 homes on the territory, and about 20 are either vacant, abandoned, unfinished or in need of serious repair, Matthews said.
A survey of 113 tribal members conducted by the housing department last year found about 60% were living in multigenerational households with elders. More than half of respondents said they have no homeowners insurance, according to Matthews.
The need for housing rehabilitation funds goes beyond what the housing department can cover, with many older homes needing mold remediation and upgrades to their electrical and heating systems, Matthews said.
"A lot of our houses are third-generation houses — just passed down and patched up," Matthews said. "Our floors are sinking. Our roofs are leaking."
Moore, who grew up in South Plainfield, New Jersey, said she moved to the Shinnecock Nation about 15 years ago to help her grandmother care for her grandfather.
A few years later, Moore received a portion of her grandmother’s one-acre allotment in the nation and later began the process of clearing the land for a home. Her cousin helped build a foundation and basement walls, but Moore ran out of savings to complete the project.
Moore applied for assistance from Hamptons Community Outreach more than a year ago after the nonprofit completed a project on a nearby property. Molin said the way living in the trailer affected Moore's health made her a strong candidate for aid. The nonprofit director said she raises money from wealthy donors for specific projects as well as a general fund to support the organization's charitable work.
Hamptons Community Outreach has raised more than $7 million in direct donations and $3.5 million in in-kind donations since its founding in 2018, according to Molin. Its programs include home repairs, food donations, youth programs and medical and dental care that serve people with low incomes on the East End.
To raise money for Moore’s home, Molin said she brought a donor to tour the site where Moore's trailer sits and asked, "Would you like to help us change her life?"
In late 2023, the nonprofit arranged to connect Moore’s home to electricity, and last spring Forden & Co. began working on her house. Moore said she thought the crew would enclose the unfinished basement and then turn the project back over to her.
“Then, they came with the plans, and I was like, ‘That’s a whole house. Wow, that’s a whole house!’ ” she said, her voice shaking.
Builders returned in November to construct the house during a lull in Forden’s other residential projects, which include custom homes that sell for more than $10 million.
Moore recalled leaving to pick up coffee for the workers and returning shocked to see the house had been framed in the time she was gone.
“I didn’t even recognize my own property,” Moore said. “I drove past my own driveway.”
The project is Forden's fourth in the Shinnecock territory after completing several renovations.
Forden said he enlisted suppliers and subcontractors he knows from his homebuilding business to donate framing lumber as well as roofing, plumbing, electrical and insulation materials. He covered the costs of windows and siding. Contractors also covered the cost of laborers to frame the house and install the siding.
He estimated the home cost about $225,000 to build, with most covered through donations of materials and labor and $70,000 paid for through fundraising by Hamptons Community Outreach.
"As soon as I went to the first house on Shinnecock, it resonated with me," he said.
Moore will move into her new home in a few weeks.
When Newsday visited in January, Moore had painted the walls — summer peach for the living room, lovely lavender for the kitchen — and crews had installed nearly floor-to-ceiling Andersen windows.
During a tour of the unfinished house, Moore paused in front of those windows, where she will be able to watch deer, rabbits and a possum she’s named Sharptooth roam the property from her bedroom.
"The first time I get to lay in my own bed and wake up and look out the window like, ‘This is mine,’ " she said, imagining what life will be like in her new house. "It’s a fabulous feeling, and words just can’t even express it."
For years, her mother hasn’t been able to spend time with her in the trailer because the mold was too hard on her lungs.
Now, Moore looks forward to welcoming her into her new home.
“Everybody should get to feel like this,” she said.
For more than a decade, Janelle Moore has lived in a trailer partially covered by an orange tarp, on land that has been passed down through her family for generations in the Shinnecock Indian Nation.
For most of that time, she had no running water, no electricity and relied on propane-powered heaters to keep herself warm. She said it's been a constant fight to keep moisture out of the home, which has led to mold and mildew that irritate her sinuses.
"The floor was basically rotting out," she said. "I was not living in an environmentally safe place at all."
But in just a few weeks, she will have a gleaming white single-level house, just steps from her trailer. Moore, 42, will move in for free thanks to a partnership between the nonprofit Hamptons Community Outreach and Sag Harbor homebuilder Alex Forden.
During an interview outside her home in January, Moore spoke of her dreams for the first days in her house amid the sounds of saws buzzing and nail guns firing, as workers added doors, trim and base molding inside.
“I’m so excited to sit in my bathtub and soak in the bubbles. To cook in my own kitchen — just to have my own something,” Moore said through tears.
Moore is the latest recipient of support from the nonprofit, which helps people with low incomes and health concerns as well as the elderly pay for home repairs.
In the past 3½ years, Hamptons Community Outreach has helped fund renovations of 65 houses on the East End, about three-quarters of which were on Shinnecock territory, said Marit Molin, founder and executive director of the Bridgehampton-based charity.
Janelle Moore, a Shinnecock tribal member, basks in the sunlight streaming through the windows of her nearly completed home on the Shinnecock Nation territory. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
The Shinnecock Nation lacks the funding to cover major housing repairs for residents in need and prioritizes spending its limited resources on helping elders, people with disabilities and veterans, leaving younger tribal members with less aid, said Phillip Brown, the tribal nation's housing director.
The support from Hamptons Community Outreach helps fill a critical gap to help low-income residents repair homes, he said.
With about 1,600 enrolled tribal members, the Shinnecock Nation struggles to attract federal housing aid because of its small size relative to other tribal nations in the U.S., Brown said. Some of the largest tribal nations have hundreds of thousands of members.
I’m so excited to sit in my bathtub and soak in the bubbles. To cook in my own kitchen — just to have my own something.
— Janelle Moore, Shinnecock tribal member
Out of $1.1 billion in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development block grants distributed to tribal nations last year, the Shinnecock received $73,000, according to an annual report from the housing department.
"What can that really do?" Brown said. "There's still a tremendous need."
For Moore and many Shinnecock people, securing a mortgage to buy or renovate a home isn’t an option. Because their land is held collectively by the nation and cannot be mortgaged or sold to non-tribal members, Shinnecock homeowners can't leverage their property’s wealth like other Long Islanders. Instead, houses often change hands within the community for as little as $30,000 to $60,000, Brown said.

Linee Matthews, of the Shinnecock Housing Department, in front of homes on the Shinnecock Nation territory. Many houses there face critical issues such as mold, leaky roofs and sinking floors, she said. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
Help on housing
Most of the homes on Shinnecock territory, including Moore's, are located on a 900-acre peninsula known as Shinnecock Neck. It's south of Montauk Highway and just east of Stony Brook University's Southampton campus. Of the 1,600 enrolled members, about half live on the neck, which stretches into Shinnecock Bay and Heady Creek, nearly touching Southampton's Meadow Lane — home to some of the most expensive mansions in the country.
The poverty rate in the territory, at 20.6%, is nearly triple that of Suffolk County, according to U.S. Census data.
Moore is not alone among Shinnecock people who need funding for home repairs to address living conditions that threaten their health, said Linee Matthews, the housing department's assistant director.
"Mold is one of our biggest issues here on the Neck," she said.
The median income among Shinnecock families is about $66,000, roughly half of the $124,000 median household income for Suffolk County families, according to Census data.
The department's 2024 housing report shows there are 260 homes on the territory, and about 20 are either vacant, abandoned, unfinished or in need of serious repair, Matthews said.
A survey of 113 tribal members conducted by the housing department last year found about 60% were living in multigenerational households with elders. More than half of respondents said they have no homeowners insurance, according to Matthews.
The need for housing rehabilitation funds goes beyond what the housing department can cover, with many older homes needing mold remediation and upgrades to their electrical and heating systems, Matthews said.
"A lot of our houses are third-generation houses — just passed down and patched up," Matthews said. "Our floors are sinking. Our roofs are leaking."
Changing a life
Moore, who grew up in South Plainfield, New Jersey, said she moved to the Shinnecock Nation about 15 years ago to help her grandmother care for her grandfather.
A few years later, Moore received a portion of her grandmother’s one-acre allotment in the nation and later began the process of clearing the land for a home. Her cousin helped build a foundation and basement walls, but Moore ran out of savings to complete the project.
Moore applied for assistance from Hamptons Community Outreach more than a year ago after the nonprofit completed a project on a nearby property. Molin said the way living in the trailer affected Moore's health made her a strong candidate for aid. The nonprofit director said she raises money from wealthy donors for specific projects as well as a general fund to support the organization's charitable work.
Hamptons Community Outreach has raised more than $7 million in direct donations and $3.5 million in in-kind donations since its founding in 2018, according to Molin. Its programs include home repairs, food donations, youth programs and medical and dental care that serve people with low incomes on the East End.
I didn’t even recognize my own property. I drove past my own driveway.
-Janelle Moore, Shinnecock tribal member
To raise money for Moore’s home, Molin said she brought a donor to tour the site where Moore's trailer sits and asked, "Would you like to help us change her life?"
In late 2023, the nonprofit arranged to connect Moore’s home to electricity, and last spring Forden & Co. began working on her house. Moore said she thought the crew would enclose the unfinished basement and then turn the project back over to her.
“Then, they came with the plans, and I was like, ‘That’s a whole house. Wow, that’s a whole house!’ ” she said, her voice shaking.
Builders returned in November to construct the house during a lull in Forden’s other residential projects, which include custom homes that sell for more than $10 million.

From left, Marit Molin, of Hamptons Community Outreach, Janelle Moore, and Sag Harbor homebuilder Alex Forden share a joyful moment outside Moore's new home. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
Moore recalled leaving to pick up coffee for the workers and returning shocked to see the house had been framed in the time she was gone.
“I didn’t even recognize my own property,” Moore said. “I drove past my own driveway.”
The project is Forden's fourth in the Shinnecock territory after completing several renovations.
Forden said he enlisted suppliers and subcontractors he knows from his homebuilding business to donate framing lumber as well as roofing, plumbing, electrical and insulation materials. He covered the costs of windows and siding. Contractors also covered the cost of laborers to frame the house and install the siding.
He estimated the home cost about $225,000 to build, with most covered through donations of materials and labor and $70,000 paid for through fundraising by Hamptons Community Outreach.
"As soon as I went to the first house on Shinnecock, it resonated with me," he said.

Alex Forden, left, a Sag Harbor homebuilder, inside the home he is constructing for Janelle Moore. Credit: Elizabeth Sagarin
'Everybody should get to feel like this'
Moore will move into her new home in a few weeks.
When Newsday visited in January, Moore had painted the walls — summer peach for the living room, lovely lavender for the kitchen — and crews had installed nearly floor-to-ceiling Andersen windows.
During a tour of the unfinished house, Moore paused in front of those windows, where she will be able to watch deer, rabbits and a possum she’s named Sharptooth roam the property from her bedroom.
"The first time I get to lay in my own bed and wake up and look out the window like, ‘This is mine,’ " she said, imagining what life will be like in her new house. "It’s a fabulous feeling, and words just can’t even express it."
For years, her mother hasn’t been able to spend time with her in the trailer because the mold was too hard on her lungs.
Now, Moore looks forward to welcoming her into her new home.
“Everybody should get to feel like this,” she said.
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