Sunday, June 15, 2025
The systemic undermining, elimination and gutting of vital federal safety-net programs that tens of millions of Americans — including many Nassau County residents — rely on daily has been one of the most alarming aspects of the Trump administration’s first 100 days.
In Washington, efforts to eliminate the Department of Education, unravel programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, cut SNAP food assistance, curtail housing assistance, slash Veterans Administration funding and inhibit myriad anti-poverty initiatives have generated outrage across our nation.
The purported reasons for these actions? Efficiency, eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. But these actions are not the product of an informed, thoughtful and comprehensive plan. They are being implemented in an ill-conceived, reckless and irresponsible fashion, with no consideration of the ramifications and consequences.
The same is happening in Nassau County, where the vital matrix of safety-net county resources is being weakened by the actions of County Executive Bruce Blakeman and his administration.
On March 14, the Safe Center closed its doors. It had operated the county’s only domestic violence shelter, aided in child abuse prosecutions, maintained a crisis intervention hotline and supported survivors of rape, sexual assault and domestic violence.
Despite months of rumblings that these vital services would be in jeopardy without an intervention, the county dropped the ball, and admitted its failure to ensure a smooth transition and continuity of care for some of our most vulnerable residents. Instead of taking responsibility, the administration has pointed fingers elsewhere and hidden behind vague and unsubstantiated allegations of mismanagement.
We have witnessed a similarly disturbing lack of urgency and planning in the handling of the county’s opioid crisis. To date, Nassau has received nearly $100 million through financial settlements of numerous class-action lawsuits against opioid manufacturers, distributors and retailers. These proceeds are required to be put toward treatment, prevention and recovery programs.
In 2022, Blakeman announced a four-year plan, through which $15 million per year would be allocated. As of February — the third year of the plan — only $4.8 million had been spent. Contracts for services have languished in the approval process, or in the case of the Family and Children’s Association, been discontinued without a satisfactory explanation. There is no replacement provider in place to continue the vital services for those in recovery. FCA’s contract for senior citizen case management was also inexplicably terminated, resulting in 25 layoffs and the discontinuation of services for 600 Nassau County seniors.
Meanwhile, Blakeman continues to treat Nassau University Medical Center — an essential link in our regional health care network for economically vulnerable people — as nothing more than a political football. We cannot gamble with the future of a facility with a Level 1 trauma center, a state-of-the-art burn center and an in-demand drug-detox facility. Blakeman must set aside politics and make the effort to partner with New York state to keep NUMC open.
The pattern of disengagement emerges once again in the county administration’s response to unhoused people. In 2017, Nassau’s Office of Housing and Intergovernmental Affairs earmarked $325,000 for the Nassau County DSS Homeless Intervention Team, through which Adult Protective Services employees and Housing and Homeless Prevention personnel performed extensive street outreach services. The county administration disbanded this team and contracted with the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless, which subsequently received less than half of the HIT team’s funding to provide similar services.
The county cuts persisted even though the coalition’s 2024 “point in time” count of unhoused people showed an increase of nearly 500, to 4,002 people — 1,396 of them under age 18.
All the while, Nassau County’s Civil Service Commission — a merit-based vessel through which people can secure employment and uplift themselves through good-paying careers in public service — is rudderless. The commission has been without an executive director since June 2023, and the lack of leadership has greatly curtailed its capacity for outreach and engagement with people who could truly benefit from the opportunities that are available.
It’s often said that the strength of a society is best judged by the welfare of its most vulnerable citizens. By that standard, the current county administration is failing badly — and it matters little whether that’s a product of conscious choice, negligence or incompetence.
Scott M. Davis represents Nassau County’s 1st Legislative District.
