Homeless count on Long Island sets funding for agencies caring for those living on the streets
Kathleen Gavigan-Post and Eira Severino, to her left, street outreach specialists for the Amityville-based Long Island Coalition for the Homeless, speak with homeless men in Hempstead on Monday during the count. Credit: Randee Daddona
Scores of outreach workers and volunteers fanned out across Long Island this week in a federally mandated census of the region’s homeless people.
From 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday, with temperatures in the 30s, they visited sites including transit hubs, parks, encampments, libraries and other sites to conduct the Point-In-Time count. Conducted annually across the nation each year at the end of January, its results are used by government agencies to determine funding and by local nonprofits to plan their work.
In the parking lot of the Hempstead Transit Center, Devin Thompson, 46, told counters that he’d been homeless for 18 months, since he got hit by a car. He lost his job as a chef because he couldn’t stay standing up for a 12-hour shift anymore. "It just goes down from here," he told a reporter. "I can’t do what I used to do."
Thompson said he felt safer sleeping on the street than in shelters, recounting the time when he was menaced by a man who’d smuggled a gun inside. When it gets dangerously cold, he travels into New York City and spends the night riding the subway, he said.
Another man, Clifton Woods, 50, said he’d been homeless for three years, since a probation violation got him kicked out of his home. He spends much of the day at the bus station, he said, sometimes visiting a local library. He had no family to help him, he said. "My sister passed away," Woods told a reporter. "That was my help."
Long Island Coalition for the Homeless is responsible for the regional Point-In-Time count. Two of the Amityville-based organization’s professional street outreach specialists, Eira Severino and Kathleen Gavigan-Post, did the Hempstead count. "This area is usually packed," said Severino. The bus station provides temporary respite against the cold, though security guards kick out people without tickets, she said, and Mary Brennan INN, Long Island’s largest soup kitchen, is nearby.
The count gives a snapshot of homelessness in America, showing the overall numbers of people experiencing homelessness and demographic trends. For 2024 on Long Island, the count was 4,002 in shelters and on the street, up from 3,536 in 2023, an increase reflecting a nationwide 18% spike, with more than 770,000 people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2024, according to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Count results must be submitted to HUD each spring. Results are always delayed because of the time it takes to collate, and because the count is conducted over one day with limited personnel, experts say it likely undercounts.
HUD, in a December news release, said last year's national increase in homeless people was driven by factors including migration and a shortage in housing stock. Across New York and on Long Island — where 36% of households were already cost-burdened, spending a third or more of their income on housing — rising costs and the end of programs like pandemic-era housing vouchers and an eviction moratorium likely pushed some into homelessness, experts say.
On Monday, many of the people Severino and Gavigan-Post approached were bundled against the cold under many layers of clothing. "Sometimes they have their belongings with them," said Gavigan-Post. "They may be disheveled. We don’t go up to them and presume they’re homeless, but we ask, ‘Do you have a place to stay tonight?’ That opens everything up."
For the people who said they were unhoused — those in shelters are included automatically in the annual count — the outreach workers entered gender, age, race and ethnicity into a form on their phones. They aimed to finish each interview in five minutes or less but gave their business cards, snacks and coats to anyone who wanted them. "For us, it’s more than just a count, it’s offering services going forward," said Gavigan-Post.
Fear of theft and cost are other reasons why some people may avoid shelters, said Gavigan-Post. Living in a shelter can cut supplemental security income payments by up to 80%, she said.
The 2024 count of homeless people on Long Island showed that about 95% were sheltered, though experts said that number might drop during warmer months. Roughly half were men, half women. Close to half, 1,950, were Black, though only about 9% of Long Islanders overall are Black, an overrepresentation that Paul LaMarr, the coalition’s community planning manager, said in a phone interview reflected generations of de facto segregation in the region that "we still see play out today through education and our housing systems."
Black Americans make up more than a third of the nation’s homeless people, according to HUD.
The 2024 count showed 1,209 homeless Long Islanders were white and 763 were Hispanic or Latino. There were 1,396 homeless children and minors, and 198 homeless seniors over 64. There were 2,320 homeless people in families, while 115 were homeless veterans.
The overall number of homeless people on Long Island has increased from 2,509 in 2007, the first year for which the Point-In-Time count data is available on the HUD website. It hit 3,807 by 2020, and dipped to 3,050 in 2021, with pandemic aid programs in effect.
"Now, we’ve basically returned to pre-COVID levels," said LaMarr, who accompanied Severino and Gavigan-Post for part of their day. Long Islanders face not just the end of pandemic aid programs but rising housing costs and low housing stock, especially rentals, he said. "Compare us to Westchester: More than 35% of their housing stock is rental. In Suffolk, it’s 18%. And it’s not getting better. It’s getting worse."
There’s federal support for the kind of work that the coalition does — "everybody wants to get people off the street," LaMarr said. "They just don’t want [housing] in their backyard." He and his colleagues are waiting to see if HUD funding for housing for Long Island's homeless population, now about $17 million annually, changes under the Trump administration.
LaMarr said he was heartened by progress on Long Island and nationwide toward reducing homelessness among veterans, which dropped to the lowest number on record nationally in 2024, 32,882, according to HUD. "We are severely underfunded," but in this area, "there’s been adequate funding," LaMarr said. While more work will be needed to end veteran homelessness, the progress that has been made is "a pretty clear example that putting money behind solutions can equal success."
Scores of outreach workers and volunteers fanned out across Long Island this week in a federally mandated census of the region’s homeless people.
From 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday, with temperatures in the 30s, they visited sites including transit hubs, parks, encampments, libraries and other sites to conduct the Point-In-Time count. Conducted annually across the nation each year at the end of January, its results are used by government agencies to determine funding and by local nonprofits to plan their work.
In the parking lot of the Hempstead Transit Center, Devin Thompson, 46, told counters that he’d been homeless for 18 months, since he got hit by a car. He lost his job as a chef because he couldn’t stay standing up for a 12-hour shift anymore. "It just goes down from here," he told a reporter. "I can’t do what I used to do."
Thompson said he felt safer sleeping on the street than in shelters, recounting the time when he was menaced by a man who’d smuggled a gun inside. When it gets dangerously cold, he travels into New York City and spends the night riding the subway, he said.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- A federally mandated count of homeless people on Long Island took place Monday to determine the funding for agencies that care for those living on the streets.
- The count is part of a nationwide survey of homeless people.
- The homeless population on Long Island has increased over time, due in part to high housing costs in the region and the end of pandemic-driven benefits, experts say.
Another man, Clifton Woods, 50, said he’d been homeless for three years, since a probation violation got him kicked out of his home. He spends much of the day at the bus station, he said, sometimes visiting a local library. He had no family to help him, he said. "My sister passed away," Woods told a reporter. "That was my help."
Long Island Coalition for the Homeless is responsible for the regional Point-In-Time count. Two of the Amityville-based organization’s professional street outreach specialists, Eira Severino and Kathleen Gavigan-Post, did the Hempstead count. "This area is usually packed," said Severino. The bus station provides temporary respite against the cold, though security guards kick out people without tickets, she said, and Mary Brennan INN, Long Island’s largest soup kitchen, is nearby.
The count gives a snapshot of homelessness in America, showing the overall numbers of people experiencing homelessness and demographic trends. For 2024 on Long Island, the count was 4,002 in shelters and on the street, up from 3,536 in 2023, an increase reflecting a nationwide 18% spike, with more than 770,000 people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2024, according to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
![Clifton Woods, 50, said he spends much of the day...](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.newsday.com%2Fimage-service%2Fversion%2Fc%3AOTFjYzFmNGYtYjZkYy00%3ANzFlY2JkODAtODg1Ni00%2Flicount250128_photos.jpg%3Ff%3DLandscape%2B16%253A9%26w%3D768%26q%3D1&w=1920&q=80)
Clifton Woods, 50, said he spends much of the day at the bus station. Credit: Randee Daddona
Count results must be submitted to HUD each spring. Results are always delayed because of the time it takes to collate, and because the count is conducted over one day with limited personnel, experts say it likely undercounts.
HUD, in a December news release, said last year's national increase in homeless people was driven by factors including migration and a shortage in housing stock. Across New York and on Long Island — where 36% of households were already cost-burdened, spending a third or more of their income on housing — rising costs and the end of programs like pandemic-era housing vouchers and an eviction moratorium likely pushed some into homelessness, experts say.
On Monday, many of the people Severino and Gavigan-Post approached were bundled against the cold under many layers of clothing. "Sometimes they have their belongings with them," said Gavigan-Post. "They may be disheveled. We don’t go up to them and presume they’re homeless, but we ask, ‘Do you have a place to stay tonight?’ That opens everything up."
For the people who said they were unhoused — those in shelters are included automatically in the annual count — the outreach workers entered gender, age, race and ethnicity into a form on their phones. They aimed to finish each interview in five minutes or less but gave their business cards, snacks and coats to anyone who wanted them. "For us, it’s more than just a count, it’s offering services going forward," said Gavigan-Post.
Fear of theft and cost are other reasons why some people may avoid shelters, said Gavigan-Post. Living in a shelter can cut supplemental security income payments by up to 80%, she said.
The 2024 count of homeless people on Long Island showed that about 95% were sheltered, though experts said that number might drop during warmer months. Roughly half were men, half women. Close to half, 1,950, were Black, though only about 9% of Long Islanders overall are Black, an overrepresentation that Paul LaMarr, the coalition’s community planning manager, said in a phone interview reflected generations of de facto segregation in the region that "we still see play out today through education and our housing systems."
Black Americans make up more than a third of the nation’s homeless people, according to HUD.
The 2024 count showed 1,209 homeless Long Islanders were white and 763 were Hispanic or Latino. There were 1,396 homeless children and minors, and 198 homeless seniors over 64. There were 2,320 homeless people in families, while 115 were homeless veterans.
The overall number of homeless people on Long Island has increased from 2,509 in 2007, the first year for which the Point-In-Time count data is available on the HUD website. It hit 3,807 by 2020, and dipped to 3,050 in 2021, with pandemic aid programs in effect.
"Now, we’ve basically returned to pre-COVID levels," said LaMarr, who accompanied Severino and Gavigan-Post for part of their day. Long Islanders face not just the end of pandemic aid programs but rising housing costs and low housing stock, especially rentals, he said. "Compare us to Westchester: More than 35% of their housing stock is rental. In Suffolk, it’s 18%. And it’s not getting better. It’s getting worse."
There’s federal support for the kind of work that the coalition does — "everybody wants to get people off the street," LaMarr said. "They just don’t want [housing] in their backyard." He and his colleagues are waiting to see if HUD funding for housing for Long Island's homeless population, now about $17 million annually, changes under the Trump administration.
LaMarr said he was heartened by progress on Long Island and nationwide toward reducing homelessness among veterans, which dropped to the lowest number on record nationally in 2024, 32,882, according to HUD. "We are severely underfunded," but in this area, "there’s been adequate funding," LaMarr said. While more work will be needed to end veteran homelessness, the progress that has been made is "a pretty clear example that putting money behind solutions can equal success."
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