By Jennifer Corr
The North Shore Sheltering Program, which provides the homeless with a place to go at night during the winter, closed as it does every year the morning of April 1.
But this year was different. Not only were some of the men who stayed at the shelter unable to find seasonal employment that could afford them a room as they often did in prior years, but they were also left with no place to go during the daytime.
“It’s always unfortunate that we have to close but this year I really kind of felt like we were sending them to nothing,” said Christine Schaffner, the senior counselor at the North Shore Sheltering Program.
Volunteers run the 22-year-old shelter program that is housed in First Presbyterian Church in Glen Cove from Thanksgiving Day to April 1. And because the program is led on a volunteer basis, the shelter was not able to stay open for a longer period in a safe manner during the pandemic.
Cantor Gustavo Gitlin of Congregation Tifereth Israel, who is the president of the North Shore Sheltering Program Board of Trustees, emphasized that point. “We are volunteers,” he said. “Every year we provide shelter and a safe place to sleep at night and dinners and breakfast during the wintertime. So, this year with the coronavirus, they don’t have a place to be during the day. When it was the last month, [the shelter] was really dangerous and it wasn’t a safe environment.”
To try to make it a safer environment in the last month, according to the North Shore Sheltering Program’s website, the organization took several steps, such as cleaning surfaces, bringing in a nurse to check a guest’s overall health, limiting the number of guests to follow guidelines for social distancing and having volunteers wear gloves. But the program could not safely continue into April because the situation worsened, developed into what it is today.
Both choices had consequences, however. As the date that the shelter would close approached, the men began to see what life could look like during the pandemic. There was nowhere available to sit or to even use the bathroom.
Steve Fortuna, a board member of the program, said that usually the men had arrived at the church at 6 p.m. and left at 7 a.m. It’s during that time that they would receive dinner, take showers, speak with counselors and wake up to breakfast. Then during the day, some would go to the Glen Cove Senior Center, Starbucks, the Glen Cove Public Library or any establishment where they could sit and use the restroom. But as these institutions began to shut down in adherence to federal, state and local guidelines, the resources were no longer available to them.
“So, they would have to go from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. until they had an indoor restroom to use,” said Fortuna. “Now that the men don’t even have the night-time shelters, they don’t have restrooms.”
Fortuna said that 26 men stayed over the season. During the last week, there were around 16 guests. Only a couple of them qualified for assistance from the Department of Social Services, said Schaffner and Fortuna.
“I did work with Steve Fortuna of North Shore Sheltering to help facilitate the assistance of the Nassau County Department of Social Services,” said Maureen Basdavanos, the deputy mayor of Glen Cove. “Steve and Cantor Gustavo Gitlin worked with the men and DSS to find shelter for them during this difficult time.”
As for the others, Fortuna said that he has seen around eight of the men who stayed at the shelter now roaming the streets of Glen Cove. He presumes that they’re sleeping in the woods or on benches.
“You’re left with this feeling that this can’t be possible that there’s no one or no place to help,” said Schaffner. “Now, these guys are telling me there’s not even animals walking around on the street and yet, there they are.”
Community members have been getting together to make sure that the men get some things to get by, such as lunches and backpacks. Gitlin asked his friend Lisa Rosenthal of Sea Cliff, who has been homebound during the crisis due to vulnerabilities, if she could help.
It’s what New Yorkers do, Rosenthal said. She took to Facebook asking on the Glen Cove Neighbors page and her personal account if people could drop off backpacks at her home. She also asked if people would be willing to leave lunches on the bench in front of Glen Cove City Hall.
She would find 30 backpacks in front of her home from complete strangers. She, members of the North Shore Women’s Club and others have been providing lunches in front of City Hall ever since.
“The women who have been dropping off food . . . I think that’s amazing,” Schaffner said. “When you have no resources and then half the places aren’t open anyway, eating becomes a real challenge.”
Other ways to help is to donate on Northshoresheltering.org or to contact the organization with any ideas or services one could provide, Schaffner said.
“[Homelessness] can really be self-perpetuating,” Schaffner said. “I wish people didn’t make mass judgments and if anything, just ask how you can help. That’s certainly a lot more helpful.”
Schaffner, who has spent hours working with guests as a counselor herself, said that homelessness is a hard circumstance to change because they lack identification and addresses to give to job prospects, along with the inability to get professionals clothes. A lot of them want to work, she said. In fact, Fortuna added, two of the men had actually been laid off from recently accepted jobs because of the pandemic.
“People tend to think a lot of different things; they think they’re lazy, they think they’re all drunk . . . they could get a job if they wanted to,” Schaffner said. “I also hear that they’re getting lots of looks and things like that. I really wish that people would realize that a lot of them are actually good people in really bad situations.”
Photo by Lisa Rosenthal.