Nearly $3 million in NY grant funds to Long Island facility for homeless vets, families

Long Island's only facility for homeless veterans will receive nearly $3 million in state funds to house vets' families while another $200,000 will help a Bay Shore nonprofit repair emergency shelters, officials said Tuesday.

A total of $17.3 million in state funding, with an aim of housing homeless New Yorkers, was awarded to six projects in Suffolk and three other counties, Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement.

"By providing state funding for projects that couple affordable housing with supportive services, New York is working to address the root issues that either cause or contribute to homelessness and start these individuals and their families on the road to long-term housing stability," Hochul said.

The program has created more than 22,000 units of housing to support individuals and families experiencing homelessness, state officials said.

Funding from the grant program includes $2.6 million to United Veterans Beacon House, Inc., a Bay Shore nonprofit that operates a 34-bed shelter, to construct permanent housing for a veteran-led family. The funds will also be used to preserve two emergency shelters for single homeless adults in East Patchogue.

"We cannot turn our backs on the men and women who served honorably in our nation's armed services, especially not during their time of need," said Frank Amalfitano, president of United Veterans Beacon House, the Island's lone facility charged with housing homeless military vets.

Penates Inc., a nonprofit homeless shelter, was awarded $100,000 to restore a two-story home and preserve 17 beds of emergency housing for homeless families in Bay Shore, officials said. The company was also awarded another $100,000 for shelter repairs at a separate two-story, 17-bed home in Bay Shore.

"These funds through the state's Homeless Housing and Assistance Program will help us perform critical updates to these two facilities, which will enable them to continue this important work in our communities," said Penates Inc. Executive Director Carol Berkowitz in a statement.

Grants were also issued for projects for the homeless in Manhattan, Chautauqua and Syracuse.

The projects in total will create or preserve 120 units of housing for veterans, survivors of domestic violence, individuals with a history of substance abuse and those suffering from serious mental illness, officials said.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.