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Wall Street's meltdown hits Long Islanders at home

Joye Brown

September 16, 2008

Yesterday's chaos surrounding the collapse of some of Wall Street's major investment banks made Terry Windus think of just one thing:

The home she lost.

"It's scary, especially because mortgages and housing's in the middle of the mess," she said. "I think a lot more people are going to be losing their homes."

Windus, 53, sold hers at a loss recently, rather than face foreclosure. And now she's back to doing what's she's done for years on Long Island - renting an apartment.

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"I wish somebody had just said to me, 'You can't afford a house,'" said Windus, who lives in Middle Island. "I would have said, "Okay," she said. "I would have been spared a lot of stress, a lot of pain."

Windus was born in Centereach, went to college and, eventually, settled back on Long Island. She married, divorced and raised two children on her salary as a child advocate. But her salary was never enough for a house.

"It's hard finding rentals but I always managed," she said, reeling off the names of communities where she found them, including Medford, Ronkonkoma, Patchogue, Centereach and Hauppauge.

She thought her rental days were over when she used a small inheritance to buy her first home, a condo.

"There was so much I didn't know and it came back to haunt me," she said. "I tell people to go for ownership counseling because I don't want anyone to make the mistakes I made."

Windus was eager to talk about yesterday's roller-coaster economics and the financial lows she's weathered.

So too - initially - was an 81-year-old great-grandmother who lives in a spacious, immaculately kept rental apartment in Deer Park.

"At my age, I can't help but look at all of this on television and think Depression," she told me the first time in a telephone conversation as I was driving to her house.

She and her late husband were homeowners in Brooklyn and Seaford, and expected the investment to fund their retirement once it was sold.

The couple moved to Florida, but she came back after her husband died and she had a "mini-stroke."

She paid $1,000-a-month in rent, until her savings were almost exhausted. And now, she's on Section 8, a federal program that pays 70 percent of the rent for income-eligible renters.

"I'm sorry," the woman said shortly after we sat down together in her apartment. She asked me not to use her name or take a photograph.

"I feel like I'm taking a handout," she explained. "I don't want people to know. I don't want them to know my name or see my face."

Her children help, which is good, she said, "because with gas and groceries and utilities and just living, there's no way for anybody" to live on Social Security.

"We used to sit around the swimming pool talking about people on Section 8," she said. "And now I'm on Section 8. It's not what we had planned."

She's ashamed, although she shouldn't be. Her only income is a Social Security check.

Two years ago, the Community Development Corporation of Long Island - which counseled Windus on the quick sale of her condo at a $30,000 loss and helped the great-grandmother apply for Section 8 - solicited applications for its rental assistance waiting list.

Fewer than 5,000 came in.

A few weeks ago, the CDC began soliciting applications for its waiting list for the first time since then.

Almost 10,000 came in.

And because of increasing demand from Long Island residents, the CDC upped its foreclosure counseling staff from one to five.

A Wall Street meltdown may be beginning.

But for an increasing number of Long Island families, the panic is now.