Catholic Charities program gives man and his son a home for the holidays

At one point Bill Connor was living on a boat with his 2-year-old son because he had no place else to go. Eventually they ended up in a homeless shelter, where they lived in a small room for three years.

This year, Connor is celebrating what he calls a Christmas miracle, thanks to Catholic Charities: He and his son have an apartment of their own.

It feels like heaven to Connor, 67, who has several health problems and has been able to work only intermittently for years.

"This place is our Christmas present," said Connor, who grew up in Oakdale. "I’m looking forward to having a home life now."

But after a long history of ups and downs, he also is nervous. "I feel really good, but I feel trepidation that something could happen, that the rug will be pulled out from under me," he said. "I keep wanting to look over my shoulder."

Connor and his son moved into the apartment in Patchogue a few weeks ago thanks to a Catholic Charities program called Project Independence. The program helps homeless people who also suffer from at least one physical or mental disability find permanent housing. Project Independence pays almost all of their rent, within guidelines.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funds the program that is subsidized by Catholic Charities, which is part of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, one of the largest Catholic dioceses in the nation. The program, founded in 2003, has helped relocate hundreds of people who were living outdoors in Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, sleeping in their cars in supermarket parking lots, and bundling up at night in the doorways of stores and other locations, said Gena McSorley, program coordinator of Project Independence.

Although Long Island is mostly middle- and upper-middle class, it has a sizable number of homeless people who often go unnoticed, she said.

"They find places to sleep and survive and half the time you go right past them and you don’t even know," she said. "They’re sleeping in church doorways."

It’s especially gratifying to help someone like Connor at Christmastime, she said. "When you see Bill in his house with his kid ... you’re saying, ‘This is the Holy Spirit. This is God at work.’ "

Project Independence helps a total of 43 households at any given time but is part of a larger network that is helping get homeless people off the streets and into permanent housing. The nonprofit Long Island Coalition for the Homeless keeps the official list of registered homeless people in the region and refers them to groups like Catholic Charities for help.

Thousands homeless on Long Island

An estimated 4,000 homeless people live on Long Island, said Greta Guarton, executive director of the coalition.

The organization helps place between 200 and 300 homeless families a year in permanent housing, she said. The coalition needs more groups to help — and more housing, she added. They have found people living in cars, in the woods, near highways and at train stations, she said.

Long Island has "the reputation of being a very affluent place," she said. "But in fact there are pockets of extreme wealth and there are pockets of extreme poverty. ... We see a lot of folks die on the streets." The Coalition for the Homeless said at least four homeless people died while living on the streets on Long Island in 2023 and 2024.

Beyond the homeless, there are thousands of Long Islanders at high risk of becoming homeless, she said. They include those who "couch surf" among friends and families, moving from place to place, and those who pack a dozen or more people into a small house.

Connor became one of the unlucky ones when he found himself with no place to live with his son besides his boat.

He has worked most of his life in restaurants and bars, serving as a cook, door attendant, manager and all kinds of odd jobs. He had his first job at the age of 15 at the former Saxon Arms restaurant near his family home in Oakdale. He washed dishes.

He liked the work, but it did not always give him financial stability, he said.

Superstorm Sandy hits

His situation went downhill rapidly in 2012 when Superstorm Sandy hit. He was staying part-time at his family’s home in the Idle Hour section of Oakdale when it was flooded and destroyed by one of the worst storms to ever hit Long Island, he said.

He ended up moving to a 37-foot cabin cruiser he had in a slip in Patchogue. He lived there for 12 years. At night in cold weather he kept warm with a propane heater. He did not realize it was slowly damaging his lungs with carbon monoxide.

At one point he got into a relationship and the couple had a son. Connor said he was given full custody of the boy when he was 2.

They lived on the boat for about six months until Child Protective Services workers told him they would have to move as the colder weather  was arriving, bringing with it potentially icy decks and the need for the propane heater.  

They ended up at a motel in Medford that had been turned into a homeless shelter by the Suffolk County Department of Social Services. Connor tried to make the best of it — he noted that his son at least had other children to play with there since it was housing about 50 families.

But Connor’s health was deteriorating. He would faint up to five times a day because of lung problems, he said.

One day he helped a family move out of the shelter and learned they had obtained an apartment through Catholic Charities. He called the agency and started searching the internet for a place.

When he found a relatively good deal in Patchogue, a tidy two-bedroom, Catholic Charities said they would cover nearly all the monthly rent of $2,400. Although the program aims to eventually make people independent, there is no time limit on how long the agency will pay for a person’s rent, McSorley said. Those who do work contribute some of their income to the rent. 

Connor and his son moved in just before Thanksgiving and are thrilled, he said. While the apartment is still somewhat bare-bones — he needs living room furniture, for instance — it feels like a five-star hotel compared to the shelter.

"I’m an eternal optimist, and I’m loving life," he said. His son "loves it. He’s thrilled. It’s a great neighborhood."

He also is trying to get his health problems under control. He has lost weight, quit smoking, and obtained a CPAP respirator machine that he uses at night and that has slowly begun to clean his lungs of the carbon monoxide, he said.

"I’m feeling much healthier. I was ready to die when I was at the shelter," he said. "I’m on a mission to be as healthy as possible by the time I’m 70” largely so he can care for his son, now 7 years old.

He gets by on food stamps, food pantries, thrift stores and a Social Security check. He says he is eternally grateful to the workers at Catholic Charities, including case worker Nicole Catsounis and program supervisor Christopher Ferraiolo, who have helped turn his life around.

"There’s a lot of good people in the world," he said. "The good people don’t get the recognition that they should. My prayers have been answered by Catholic Charities."