Hampton Bays Homeless Shelter to Close

A long-hated homeless shelter at the Hidden Cove motel in Hampton Bays will finally shut on September 30, the county announced on Monday

The news came in a joint statement sent to the media on Monday night from Southampton Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst, who is running for re-election and Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, who is also vying for re-election.

According to Schneiderman, the decision was made to close the shelter after the legislature adopted a new policy that aims to keep homeless children living within their own school districts and after the county opened two large shelters in Western Suffolk.

"It was appropriate to re-evaluate whether a facility located in an area were homelessness has a very low incidence, is still needed,” Schneiderman said.

According to John O’Neill, acting Commissioner of the Suffolk County Department of Social Services, the county's new homeless shelter policy, which was adopted in March, aims to ensure that homeless children are placed in shelter locations near their home school districts to prevent negative impacts on them.

The Hampton Bays shelter, which has been home to 22 families living in 33 units since October 2011, has been a bone of contention in the community, with residents creating a new civic group, called the Concerned Citizens of Hampton Bays to fight the shelter as part of its mission. The members said the shelter places an burden on the school district and on taxpayers with 43 of the district's 2,031 students residing at a local motel.

In addition, the Hampton Bays Civic Association, in January, kicked-off a campaign to form a village of Hampton Bays to separate from the Town of Southampton — the reason, they said — the town is not doing enough to stop blight and overcrowding in the hamlet.

When the shelter first opened, the town did meet with residents and also voted to commence a lawsuit against the county for opening the shelter; however, four months later, the town scrapped its plan to sue the county, saying that after careful research, it has been decided that "legal action would not be prudent at this time."

Supervisor Throne-Holst urged residents to reach out to the county while she continued to negotiate with the county's health department, making headway after the former Suffolk County Health Department Commissioner Gregory Blass retired in January and Steve Bellone was elected as the county executive.

“We appreciate SCDSS and the County Executive's office working with us on the local level to best meet the needs of sheltered families and children, while welcoming us to the table to best address and work cooperatively on these programs and constituent needs. This is a very welcome change from the previous administration that kept us entirely removed from this process. This is a great example of all levels of government working productively together,” said Throne-Holst.

According to the Suffolk County health department, the residents currently living in the shelter will be transitioned to longer term housing over the next several weeks.