E. End homeless find refuge at new center

A new initiative by a Riverhead homeless-services organization has turned an ordinary two-story house into a daytime drop-in center for the East End.

The nonprofit Maureen's Haven, which operates a winter shelter network for the homeless among more than a dozen East End houses of worship, celebrated the opening of its daytime center Thursday.

Tracey Lutz, executive director of Maureen's Haven, said the initiative helps to connect people who are homeless with job search efforts, recovery groups and classes to improve their health and well-being. The center has seen about 40 people use it each day, she said.

"Our guests move from place to place to place with no place to call their own," Lutz said. "This is the one constant."

Maureen's Haven moved its offices into the Lincoln Street house in October and opened the daytime center on Nov. 1, the day its winter shelter system began. Funding for the center came from a variety of grants.

Thursday, a handful of people sat at computers, searching for housing and jobs, while a few stretched in a yoga class.

John Kirchner, 57, set up a work space in a corner of the back room, complete with carefully labeled jars of nails and cans of paint. Kirchner, a former auto-body technician, said he has been homeless for a year and a half.

In the winters, he sleeps at the facilities arranged by Maureen's Haven; in the summers, he sleeps in a tent outside, he said.

Before the drop-in center opened, Kirchner said, he would spend his days sitting at the public library reading newspapers or novels, or just walking around Riverhead. Now, he goes to the center every day to put his construction skills to work creating birdhouses shaped like each of the congregations that house people from Maureen's Haven.

He's now working on a miniature version of the Maureen's Haven house. He donates each house to its matching congregation. "It's a way to pay back," Kirchner said of his labors, which take between two days and a week to complete.

The drop-in center also serves as the screening area for people who want to spend the night at one of the congregations, Lutz said. Maureen's Haven previously conducted the screenings outside at the Riverhead Long Island Rail Road station.

Opening the center has lessened some of the pressure on downtown spots that had become favorites of the homeless during the day, said Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter, who was one of the public officials at Thursday's ribbon-cutting ceremony.

"Now you're helping clients and you're not putting a burden on a community that already has too many burdens," Walter said.

All the classes and training at Maureen's Haven are taught by volunteers, including Andrea Zeledon, a yoga instructor and holistic health instructor who has been teaching weekly at the center for two months.

"Every time they take the class," she said of her students, "they leave saying how much better they feel.

Maureen's Haven