By Nick Buglione
Yngstrom, deputy director of the Nassau County Veterans Service Agency, of Merrick, was searching for homeless veterans he could coax out of the camp and into the workforce.
"We were told, 'We like our lifestyle here, please leave us alone,'" said Yngstrom, a Vietnam veteran, who couldn't recall if Lundy or Ordover were veterans but said that other homeless men living there were.
A week later, Lundy was killed, allegedly by Ordover.
The murder has shone a spotlight on the trouble-plagued parkway woodlands across the county and the homeless people who often inhabit them.
Yngstrom's failed meeting with Lundy, Ordover and the other homeless of Tent City, however, underscored a far more serious dilemma. Offering the homeless help is one thing, but getting them to accept it is another. "We cannot force people to use the services," said Louise Skolnik, deputy commissioner of the Nassau County Department of Social Services. "But we have a very good success rate."
Over the last year, the department has regularly sent teams of social workers, escorted by police, into the wooded areas along state parkways to offer the homeless who live there food, housing, medical attention and other services. It's a tough sell, though. In the last month and a half, the teams have managed to persuade only 10 people to leave the squalor of the woods.
Since the Lundy murder, Skolnik said, the department has stepped up its efforts in the woodlands, sending social workers out daily. "Some people are very private and actually prefer being outside," Skolnik said. "There's a community, a network of homeless people throughout this country."
That's not to say all refuse the department's services. In fact, many actively seek them out. "Last week we sheltered 155 families, which added up to 497 people, and of that, 320 children," said Skolnik, who is also co-chairwoman of the county Task Force on Homelessness.
Those living in the seven shelters that the department oversees throughout the county can receive a food allowance, clothing, drug and alcohol treatment, medical services and help in the search for permanent housing. "We have been able to take 157 people out of the shelter system and find them permanent housing in the past year," said Connie Lassandro, co-chairwoman of the county Task Force on Homelessness.
The majority who receive services are women and children, Skolnik said. Most of the homeless living in the woodlands along the Meadowbrook, Southern State, Wantagh and other parkways tend to be single men, content to live on their own. Some of them are among the 4,000 homeless veterans living in Nassau County, Yngstrom said.
Since July, Yngstrom and other representatives from the county Department of Veterans Services have scoured the woodlands, parks and soup kitchens for these men, hoping to get them back on their feet. "We're mostly looking to get people jobs," Yngstrom said. This year the department received a $300,000 federal grant to help homeless veterans honorably discharged from the service.
It's the department's job to find and convince the men to get help. If they want assistance, they are turned over to the Education and Assistance Corporation, which aids them in finding jobs and housing. Though he hasn't come across any yet, Yngstrom said those with drug and alcohol problems would be sent to a 28-day rehabilitation program at the Northport Veterans Administration Medical Center.
So far, the department has brought in about 50 veterans, and its search will continue until next June. If by then the department has met at least 1,200 homeless veterans, signed up 300 and gotten 120 of them jobs or housing, it will receive another federal grant, and the program can continue.
It's an uphill battle, Yngstrom said, especially since many of the veterans haven't worked in years and are not "job-ready." "In the Vietnam veterans' cases, a lot these guys suffer from post-traumatic stress," he said. "A lot of their marriages have broken up and their wife's gotten everything."
While convincing a homeless person wary of the government to get help is difficult enough, it's just one of many obstacles that the county and non-profit organizations face in helping them. Finding affordable housing in Nassau is perhaps the biggest hurdle. "If there were more affordable housing, it would obviously take a tremendous burden off the people who are homeless," said Jean Kelly, executive director of the Interfaith Nutrition Network. "Without that basic block, you just keep moving people around from shelter to shelter."
Started 20 years ago, the non-profit INN has a $3.5 million annual budget and runs 18 soup kitchens and four emergency shelters in Nassau and Suffolk counties, as well as a long-term housing program. The organization feeds some 200,000 homeless a year. "Right now the numbers of homeless in Nassau and Suffolk are the highest they've been in 20 years," Kelly said. "That is based on a lack of affordable housing on Long Island."
What's more, the process of getting out of the shelter system and into a permanent home is long and arduous, Kelly said. "It is doable, but it takes a tremendous determination on their part," she said.
It requires filling out mounds of paper work and showing up for appointment after appointment on time, among other things. Often that's too tall an order for a chronically homeless person, who might be grappling with an addiction, debilitating disease or mental illness. Many of the homeless inevitably wind up back on the street or in parkway woodland shantytowns.
Help for the homeless
To find out more about homeless services or the location of shelters and soup kitchens, call:
*The Nassau County Department of Social Services, (516) 571-4817.
*The Interfaith Nutrition Network, (516) 486-8506.
*The Nassau-Suffolk Coalition for the Homeless, (516) 742-7770.
Homeless veterans who were honorably discharged from the service can call Pat Yngstrom at (516) 572-8452.
In the winter, the Nassau County Task Force on Homelessness runs a 24-hour emergency line, 1-866-Warm-Bed. Residents can call to report a homeless person in need.
