FASANO: A MODEL FOR CREATING HOUSING AND COMBATING HOMELESSNESS IN AMITYVILLE

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Recently, more than 125 people gathered to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Liberty Village and the Amityville Community Resource Center. In addition to supporting hundreds of people in Suffolk County, these projects are a model for how willing communities can build affordable and supportive housing to help address our region’s homelessness crisis, with a focus on a particularly vulnerable population: Veterans.

Right now, Long Islanders face the worst housing cost burden in the state, as the increasing “cost of living” threatens to push out individuals and families who have lived here for generations. The problem is especially acute for veterans, who are 50 percent more likely to become homeless than other Americans and are overrepresented in current homeless population. And this problem is being felt right in our own backyard, with a 2023 study showing that two-thirds of the state’s homeless veterans lived in the five boroughs or on Long Island.

Today, Liberty Village residents are thriving and contributing to the community, demonstrating that building supportive and affordable housing has the power to uplift entire neighborhoods—not just the specific population they are designed to serve. The NYU Furman Center finds that five years after a supportive housing building’s completion and opening, the prices of nearby properties experience ”strong and steady” growth in value.

The success in Amityville also shows what is possible when leaders agree, and collaborate on, a common goal and residents get behind the idea that everyone – regardless of their background or income level—deserves and needs a high-quality and affordable place to live. Liberty Village happened in large part because leaders such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Town Supervisor Rich Schaffer and many others, recognized the urgency; marshaled federal, state and county funds; and—perhaps most importantly – secured necessary approvals on an unusually tight timeframe.

Unfortunately, other Long Island communities have not been so open. Some have resorted to misleading claims and false rhetoric to exploit the anxieties of residents and cloud their judgement about the potential positive impact of these projects for their communities and the greater good.

In one particularly egregious case, one town—under pressure from a select few—reversed course after soliciting developers to build affordable and supportive housing on abandoned church property that had become a major problem in town. In the process, local leaders may have engaged in practices and rhetoric that discriminated against people with disabilities to stymie a project that would have created 50 affordable housing units–including 25 apartments for veterans.

This is just one example of a disturbing trend. And in the meantime, the crisis is only worsening. Sadly, the same challenges facing homeless veterans today are what prompted the development of Liberty Village a decade ago. The project’s 60 units of supportive housing were specifically designed to serve the needs of veterans and their families. Next door, the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless opened the Amityville Community Resource Center, which provides critical services including care coordination, veteran and employment services, resource navigation and more.

The 10-year milestone for Liberty Village points to one final–and powerful– lesson: Building supportive housing can help ensure that unused properties that could become a drain on the community–including surplus properties owned by religious organizations–remain vital contributions for years to come.

In the Bronx, for example, a recently opened 102-unit building provides affordable and supportive housing on the site owned by the  St. James church in Fordham. In addition to providing housing, the project also included a new community center, complete with a kitchen, financial counseling center and other amenities. Funds from the acquisition of the land were used to renovate this beautiful church originally built in the 1860s, enabling it to continue fulfilling the mission of supporting the least among us.

In Brentwood, Concern is working with the Sisters of St. Joseph (CSJ) to develop approximately 170 units of housing while preserving and restoring the 100-year-old buildings on campus. This will ensure the CSJ can keep helping those in need well into the future.

It is our sincere hope that other Long Island communities recognize the opportunity to give back to individuals who served their country and now are entitled to a secure home. Successful blueprints like Liberty Village exist, if only we have the will and courage to embrace them.

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Ralph Fasano is the executive director of Medford-based Concern Housing.