Town, homeless at odds over use of LIRR station
Supervisor pushes to relocate programs for needy
7 comments below
Open Arms director Zona Stroy (right) gets a food delivery from volunteers at the Riverhead Station Friday morning before she opened the station for the free lunch program.
His guests arriving by train have "had a couple of bad experiences," said Mr. Alhadeff, who lives in the Reeves Park area.
He recalled picking up a friend, a mother with two young children visiting from New York City. "She was terrified," he said. "She felt menaced" because of the homeless and others who spend their day at the station.
Mr. Alhadeff isn't the only one who feels that way. Area business owners have also complained that the homeless are deterring customers from shopping near the station.
In response to those concerns, Supervisor Sean Walter recently declared that the town should find a new spot where the area's homeless can have a sandwich or get a ride from Maureen's Haven volunteers to a shelter on winter nights.
Last Friday, more than 100 people, mostly Latino men, lined up at the station to get bagged lunches of ham sandwiches and cupcakes. A Riverhead Town police officer told a few to remove their personal belongings, mostly plastic garbage bags and duffel bags, which they had stacked near the curb. The unmistakable smell of urine persisted as people waited for the bus or for lunch or just hung out.
"I can't believe how cold-hearted this place is," Mr. Holmes said of the town.
A disabled Vietnam War veteran, he said that hiding the homeless at a less conspicuous location would not solve the problem of poverty in the area. "Moving it where you can't see it doesn't erase the problem," he said.
Ruben Hernandez, formerly of the Bronx, moved to Riverhead a few months ago to be near a friend. Although he said he had a place to live, Mr. Hernandez depends on Social Security for his income and has little money for food. He said the soup kitchen had been a tremendous help.
If it were not easily accessible, needy people might resort to theft to feed themselves, he said. "People will find another means," he explained.
Mr. Walter said this week that there's more reason than ever to move the Maureen's Haven pickup and the soup kitchen, run by the nonprofit Open Arms Care Center.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority, he noted, agreed last week not to cut train service to Riverhead and the North Fork, as it had been threatening to do. In agreeing to keep trains running, LIRR president Helena Williams asked East End officials to help increase ridership on the sparsely used Greenport line, Mr. Walter said.
Encouraging commuters, jurors and tourists to use the Riverhead station will be a challenge with the homeless gathering there, he added. "Several people I know will not use that railroad station," he said.
Mr. Walter has asserted that the large crowd loitering near the train station hurts business along the Railroad Avenue corridor, and has said he's received many complaints from businesspeople and residents alike.
Kevin Hogan, who works at Ninow's Music Store across the street from the station, said he would love it if the soup kitchen were moved.
He said people have urinated against the building and broken into nearby homes, and people loitering outside his shop deter customers. "From a business standpoint, it certainly doesn't help anybody," Mr. Hogan said. While he understands the need to provide services to the homeless, he said, there could be a better, less centrally located location.
"No one has anything against taking care of people," Mr. Hogan said.
The supervisor asserted that he's been trying to find a solution that Maureen's Haven director Denis Yuen would accept. One idea was to relocate the soup kitchen and daily Maureen's Haven pickup to town-owned land at the Enterprise Park in Calverton. Mr. Walter said he'd discussed modifying Suffolk County bus routes so the homeless would have a way to get there if the soup kitchen were moved to Calverton.
Mr. Yuen said he did not support the proposal. People would have to pay $3 to ride the bus to the soup kitchen in Calverton, so their lunch wouldn't be free, he said. He added that Calverton is too far from the rest of the East End, the area Maureen's Haven serves.
Now town officials are talking with county officials about moving both operations to the grounds of the Suffolk County Center in Riverside. But one problem is that there's no overhead shelter at that location.
Open Arms chairperson Zona Stroy said this week that Mr. Walter had not spoken with her about any proposals. She said the train station is a good option for the program because it offers access to public transportation, because her group's sublease with the town is free and because the building is near both a food pantry and the Salvation Army.
"It is close to the people who need it," Ms. Stroy said. "We've tried to find another location and we haven't been able to do that."
She said that she would be open to considering other options if the supervisor offered some good ones.
The town leases the 100-year-old train station from the MTA for free, on the condition that it be occupied. The MTA hasn't used the building as a train station since 1972. The town subleased the station to Open Arms in January, also for free. The lease expires June 21 and Mr. Walter and town officials are hoping to help the group find a new location before then.
It's not clear if the town could prevent Maureen's Haven from using the area as a pickup spot, as it does at the Hampton Bays LIRR station, because there is a public bus stop there.
Still, the supervisor defended the proposition, explaining that it would be a simple way to help downtown.
"Not everybody is happy, but we're offering solutions," he said. "We can't keep doing what we are doing."
vchinese@timesreview.com
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7 comments found
Move the bus : 3/29/2010
It's about time someone is taking the bull by the horns and looking out for Railroad Avenue. I recently picked my child up from the library one night at closing and watched as approximatley 15 men exited with duffle bags in hand and headed over to the station. I was concerned not only for the safety of my child but for the other patrons as well. I don't think most people have a problem with charity or the homeless as long as they respect whats being given to them. This clearly is not the case, as you can view the disgusting conditions at any time of day.
: 3/27/2010
the people are full of mess the poor homeless and or needy people are the ones being harrasedethey are just trying to get a meal and or a job fro the day most of the time it is the only meal they have and thanks to the nice people that give these human beings their only meal they are able to survive. fro that man that said that his friendscoming from the city with her kids were scared that i do not believe because trust me the city has alot more that the little bit here i even go to the train station sometimes with my 4 kids and i was not once ever harrased, disrepected nor my kids everyone was nice they say hello give up their seats fro us and all! the problem is racism and and all these well to do rich people and congress people need to walk in us our poor people and or immigrant shoes for a week to actually see how and why we need these things!!!!!!!! trust me the money we get from foodstamps in not enough also the rentals are so high and how do you not expect two or three families not to live together when the rent is so crazy high!!!! please do not close the soup kitchen in riverhead it is well needed
Train Station : 3/26/2010
I think Maureen's Haven is doing a nice job, but it doesn't change the fact that the train station area is degraded, dirty and rendered pretty much unusable by the general public. Why can't the folks who are getting free food, free transportation to and from, and other freebies and perks from us tax payers spend 20 minutes while they are there and clean up the mess and debris? Is it too much to ask people not to create and wallow in their own filth while they are there? Or should Riverhead tax payers pay for a special cleaning crew to pick up after these people?
The business owners in the area have the right to have a clean environment to earn a living. They pay their taxes. It's tough to go patronize those establishments when I know the area is such a disgrace
Lets hold these folks who are getting these freebies -- donated by local residents, I might add - hold them to the same standards as everyone else..
Show some pride. Clean up after yourself. The area does not have to look like that
: 3/25/2010
A police station there would be a very good idea.
We're Not Anti-Homeless -- We Just Want a Nice Entrance to our Town : 3/25/2010
It's not that we're against Soup Kitchens, the Homeless, or charity in general. It's actually the exact opposite. A town whose entrance is marked by despair is not going to be a successful town. And it is going to take a successful town -- both economically and culturally -- to support the less fortunate. As the boxing coach says, you simply don't "lead with your chin."
The Homeless : 3/25/2010
The homeless people are homeless because somewhere along the way something failed them. Thank God we have people of Maureen's Haven to give them a helping hand and show them the love , care and respect that they so deserve. Someone has to show them their lives are still worth living. They are Human. Certainly we don't need people who want to put the homeless with the sex offenders. SHAME ON YOU!!!
Open arms : 3/25/2010
MTA police need a permanent station at the Riverhead stop just like they have at Ronkonkoma.
Move Maureen's Haven, the day laborers, the sex offender trailers, and the abandoned trailers that are at the Riverhead Town municipal garage on CR58 to the soon-to-be-created rail spur stop at EPCAL.
