By Cindy J. Roth
Imagine only being able to clean yourself in a fast food restaurant bathroom. Imagine having to time the stop so perfectly that the restaurant won't be too busy, but not quiet enough so management notices and kicks you out.
For Richard Cooper, 63, and Eugene Loos, 73, this was the reality they faced for the last three months since being evicted from their East Rockaway home.
The Herald first told readers the story of Cooper and Loos, two East Rockaway residents who were left homeless after the Grand Avenue house where they lived in the upstairs apartment was sold, back in October. The two friends feared the worst, having little money and multiple medical problems. Having exhausted trying to find a place to live on Long Island, the men had planned to get in their car and just drive. Well, the two did just that, heading to Albany, then down to North Carolina, before coming back to the area.
The men headed to Albany with all intentions of storm the capitol, but Cooper said they were denied access to "the right people" who they thought could help. After multiple attempts at trying to break down the barriers behind which legislators are kept, the men gave up and returned to the South Shore two weeks later. The two stayed in their car, parking by local hospitals, where they said they felt safe. Loos did not want to reveal which hospital parking lots the men stay in for fear of being kicked out.
After a few days back on Long Island, the men found a cheap hotel in New Jersey on Route 9 for $36 a night, where they stayed for three days, before heading down to North Carolina. Cooper's son lives in North Carolina and he and Loos were hopeful he might be able to find the two a place to live with his connections in a veterans' housing agency. After a few weeks the men realized the waitlist for housing would be just as long in North Carolina. Worried about transferring over their Medicaid benefits from state to state, Cooper and Loos made their way back to Long Island.
Right before Christmas Cooper had a heart problem and was admitted to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow. A social worker at the hospital had read of Cooper and Loos' plight in October, and upon meeting them wanted to help. Cooper was placed in Mayfair Care Center in Hempstead, where he is allowed to stay until he is 'well,' which can't come soon enough.
"The bed is too small and I can't get individual attention," said Cooper. "I get a better night sleep in the car then I do at this place. I'm on too many medicines. My diabetes has gotten worse. I'm better off on the street."
While Cooper has been living unhappily at the nursing home, Loos still sleeps in their car. The two continue to grow ever bitter about the lack of resources for people in their position and the constant run-around of aid agencies.
"There is no system, no one person who seems to be available," said Cooper. "I'm sure if I was Gulotta's son something would be done, but there should be a system that helps, that you can get to."
"A lot of help for the poor really went underground or stopped," Cooper added. "There are no places to go anymore."
Though relatively unoptomistic, Cooper and Loos continue to call many different area agencies seeking help as well as following up on places that contacted the Herald offering help after their story ran in October.
"If you've been poor all your life you go along with the flow. But when you've never had this you say, 'where do you go,'" said Loos. "I never had this. I worked all my life, retired, had my social security. I never dreamed of this."
"You don't realize how close you can come to homelessness," said Cooper as he told an anecdote about walking in New York City as a child and seeing a homeless man wrapped up in a blanket on the street and wondering 'what is that?' "You never realize how close you can come."
If you know anyway to help Cooper and Loos find a home, please contact the Herald at (516) 569-4000 ext. 269.
