East Hampton organizations strive to meet increasing need for food and shelter

Recommend

Comment

Email this article

Print this article

Get news alerts

RSS Feeds

Share Digg Mixx Linked In Facebook Twitter Delicious

Members of the Springs School Natural Helpers, a peer counseling group, help set up the beds at Maureen's Haven.
Photos by Kyril Bromley

see all images

A network of volunteers and service organizations were represented at the United Methodist Church on the first Friday in November, preparing for the opening of Maureen’s Haven, a temporary homeless shelter, in East Hampton.

The church was buzzing with activity by 3 p.m. The chef was in the kitchen, preparing a ham dinner with vegetables and sweet potatoes, and it seemed that with each minute that went by another volunteer showed up. Representatives from other local churches dropped in to see how the program was run, and the Natural Helpers, a peer counseling group from the Springs School, volunteered by the dozen to arrange 30 mattresses for potential guests.

The cook, the nurse, the drivers, the overnight chaperone were all volunteers.

The entire operation was overseen by Barbara Jordan, who has been organizing the launch of Maureen’s Haven in East Hampton for months. She’d considered every detail, from the location down to the toiletry boxes to be given to guests, labeled blue for men and pink for women. Maureen’s Haven, she said in an earlier interview, should be a sanctuary for the homeless and a place where they feel like they exist in a world that often overlooks them.

But phone call by phone call, Ms. Jordan received the disappointing news—no one was picked up in Montauk, no one in Sag Harbor, and no one in East Hampton. The following weekend, on Saturday, the Jewish Center of the Hamptons hosted the second night of Maureen’s Haven with the same results, said Denis Yuen, the director of the program, which was started by the Peconic Community Council on the East End in 2005. There are currently 15 other host sites throughout the East End and 12 other houses of worship that participate in the program, he said.

At the Methodist Church, what was supposed to be a warm meal for the needy became a sort of round-robin of those involved in helping them. With obvious concern they shared what they knew—there was a group of homeless sleeping behind a certain restaurant, a landlord who had three families tell him they couldn’t make the rent that month and multiple families who had approached a school employee concerned that they would lose their homes.

After the economy took a turn for the worse last fall, many thought it would be one of the hardest winters for struggling families and individuals. But as this winter approaches, service organizations are finding an even greater need. Despite their absence at Maureen’s Haven, those involved in the homeless community estimate there are as many as 500 homeless on the East End, about 15 in East Hampton, and the amount of food handed out at the East Hampton Food Pantry is double what it was at this time last year.

The explanation, said Kathy Byrnes, chairwoman of the East Hampton Food Pantry, could be that this year the economic crisis has hit the working class. She said many of those who had jobs or a padded savings account last year now don’t.

“Tomorrow it could be me,” she said. “It’s the working-class people in East Hampton that need help.”

Local organizations have reacted by expanding and increasing the services they offer for those in need. In addition to the start of Maureen’s Haven, The East Hampton Food Pantry has created a satellite branch in Amagansett, which served 40 families on its first day open; and Help Now, an organization that had its tentative start in the spring, will host a monthly soup kitchen at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church and plans to start an emergency help telephone line that will offer guidance to anyone who has never had to reach out to help organizations before.

“The help line is filling a gap in the system,” said Edna Steck, director of human services for East Hampton Town. “People who may be finding themselves in situations as a result of the economy that they’ve never been in before wouldn’t know where the pantries are, about the county health clinic, social services, or other benefits they might be eligible for. The people answering the phones would be able to steer them in the right direction.”

Ms. Byrnes said the East Hampton Food Pantry has given out 15,500 bags of food so far this year. She said she believes the opening of the pantry in Amagansett will only increase the total and not just shift the location of where the needy will come for food. She said most of the 40 families that came to the pantry’s opening on November 10 were from Montauk, and only 10 were from East Hampton and went to the Amagansett satellite instead.

Mr. Yuen said members of Maureen’s Haven are now working to spread the word about the shelter in food pantries, houses of worship and other areas they know the homeless frequent. Mr. Yuen said it might be necessary for him to approach those he knows in the homeless community himself to ease their concerns about the new shelter. “It’s a matter of gaining trust,” he said.