Tunnel to Towers Foundation pays for improvements to ailing former NYPD officer's home in Massapequa

Former NYPD officer William Meurer’s world got a lot bigger this month, thanks to renovations at his Massapequa home paid for by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, the nonprofit that provides housing support and other benefits to first responders, military veterans and their families.

Meurer, who was severely injured on the job during a high-speed crash in 1994 and later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, has largely been confined to the kitchen and living room of his home since 2013, according to his daughter, Christine Meurer.

The 62-year-old, a Brooklyn native and the son of a firefighter, now has access to his yard and a master-bedroom suite, complete with a wheelchair-accessible bathroom, Christine Meurer said in an interview with Newsday. The renovation also brought him the privacy and independence he’s lacked for more than a decade.

"Now he has access to the whole entire downstairs and outside," said Meurer, one of her father’s primary caregivers. "They made a little patio for him outside of his bedroom, and he loves being outside."

No more mortgage

Tunnel to Towers also paid off the mortgage of the home — a huge assist for a family that spends $600 a week just on bandages and other medical supplies.

"Tunnels to Towers has been the only thing that has really helped us, helped my dad," Meurer said.

Tunnel to Towers paid off mortgages for four other New York and New Jersey first responders to close out its seventh annual Season of Hope, said Frank Siller, the organization’s chairman and chief executive. The organization delivered "50 mortgage-free homes" to families in 24 states this month, for a total of 200 in 2025.

"Our mission is simple: Take care of every first responder in America," Siller said.

Tunnel to Towers also paid off mortgages for the families of two deceased NYPD officers from Long Island. Det. Adam Frasse suffered a medical emergency while conducting surveillance for a human trafficking investigation in 2009. He was in a coma for more than four years before he passed away.

Sgt. Nemesio Vera, of Floral Park, spent weeks participating in recovery efforts after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. He died in 2020 from 9/11-related cancer at age 61.

Tunnel to Towers also provided mortgage-free homes to the family of Plainfield Fire Department Lt. Marques Kessie, of Piscataway, New Jersey, who died at the age of 32 while battling a house fire in 2021, and Veterans Affairs Police Services Cpl. Raymond Kuuchi, of Orange, New Jersey, who suffered a fatal heart attack during training at the age of 44.

"In America, it’s up to us as citizens to take care of those who make the ultimate sacrifice or get catastrophically injured," Siller said.

Meurer, who joined the NYPD in 1984, suffered severe injuries, including a broken leg, during a high-speed pursuit in 1994. The surgical repair was misaligned, and doctors were forced to break his leg again, Tunnel to Towers said. The former officer was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis a few years later.

The hallways in the Meurers’ home were too narrow for a wheelchair, limiting the former officer’s access to the two bedrooms and bathroom on the first floor by 2013. He was largely confined to the living room and the kitchen.

An accessible shower

"You don’t really have privacy, your own space if you just wanted to go in the room and take a nap and just be by yourself," Christine Meurer said.

After years of bed baths, her father now has access to an ADA-accessible shower.

"They made him such a beautiful bedroom with a bathroom," Meurer said. "We actually gave him a shower yesterday and he just loved it. It was really just an amazing thing."

Siller and his family founded the Tunnel to Towers Foundation to honor their youngest brother, Stephen Siller, an FDNY firefighter who died on 9/11. Stephen Siller had just finished a shift at Brooklyn’s Squad 1 in Park Slope when he learned about the attack on the World Trade Center. He tried to drive to Manhattan and when he found the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel closed to traffic, he left his truck and raced toward the scene in full gear. Stephen Siller is believed to have been in the south tower when it collapsed.

Stephen Siller was the youngest of seven children, Frank Siller said. Their parents died when Stephen was 10 years old, and he was raised by his siblings "like a son," he said.

"We just wanted to honor him and recognize what all our first responders did on 9/11," Frank Siller said about the decision to create the foundation.

Siller said Tunnel to Towers will pay the mortgages of 343 first responder families — one for each FDNY firefighter who died on 9/11 — in 2026 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the attacks. The organization is also focused on ending homelessness among veterans.

To that end, the foundation is developing the site of a former Island Park motel that was damaged by Superstorm Sandy into a 57-unit affordable apartment complex for veterans as part of its Homeless Veteran Program. The facility, scheduled for completion in 2027, will provide counseling, job training and other services in addition to housing.

Siller said the program has helped 17,500 veterans receive shelter, medical care, mental health support, and other services since 2023.

"We promised to eradicate homelessness among our veterans," Siller said.