For Long Island veteran JoJo Maria Timpanero, a 2-bedroom condo in Huntington Station she can call home

JoJo Maria Timpanero, a disabled U.S. Navy veteran, has lived in many homes, but none to call her until now. 

On Monday, Timpanero, 63, celebrated moving into her new home: a two-bedroom, two-bath condo in Huntington Station.

Timpanero is the fourth veteran to move into the 14-unit Columbia Terrace veterans-preferred affordable housing complex on the west side of Lowndes Avenue, between Railroad and Columbia streets. The complex is a project developed by the Town of Huntington through its Community and Economic Development Agency.

Candidates for the homes are selected from a lottery list, which is also open to nonveterans. 

The CDA  manages the town's inventory of affordable housing, both rental and ownership, and the lotteries that dispense that housing, according to the town website.

“I feel like a burden has been lifted off of me because now I won’t have to worry about paying high rent to landlords or getting kicked out of my apartment,” Timpanero said Monday after a ribbon-cutting event outside her new home.

Timpanero, who served in the Pacific Fleet in San Diego from 1977 to 1983, was honorably discharged under medical conditions. 

After she was treated and released from a veterans’ facility in Kings Park in 1989 she became homeless for a year, Timpanero said, adding she later lived in a group home.

For the past 20 years she rented an affordable apartment in Melville.

Timpanero, who said she gets Social Security benefits and a VA pension, will share the home with her sister, Rita Satoro.

She financed her purchase with VA loan.

Angel Cepeda, director of the Community and Economic Development Agency, said six people have closed on units and six more are on track to close in the fall. He said applications are being processed for the final two units.

Town officials said the development took longer to complete because of issues such as site plan modifications, financing obstacles, the COVID-19 pandemic and challenges getting qualified applicants for the first-time homebuyer program. 

Town officials did not have final calculations Monday but said the project cost about $3.3 million and was funded by federal, state, county and town money.

The development has eight two-bedroom, two-bath units and six one-bedroom, one-bath units. The larger units have a sales price of $253,250, and the one-bedroom condos are priced at $233,250, town officials said.

“This is an example of what can be done on behalf of our citizens and residents when different levels of government can come together to make things happen for the people,” Cepeda said.

Town Board member Joan Cergol, who previously served as CDA director, said despite the hurdles over the years to move residents into their homes, it was worth it. 

“But we have learned through the challenges, that demand for rental housing far outpaces homeownership,” she said. “I would recommend any future projects whether it be through the CDA or the private sector, to focus on rental housing for veterans.”