People of Mattituck: Richie L'Hommedieu

Richie L’Hommedieu, 34, of Mattituck, was serving food Thursday night to the homeless during the Mattituck Presbyterian Church’s homeless outreach program, John’s Place.

How long have you lived in Mattituck?
Not very long -- about four weeks.

What brought you here?
I guess I came here to start over.

Where were you before this?
I was in Ogdensburg, N.Y. I was doing some business up there for a while. I was in Charleston before that doing ship work. But I grew up on Long Island. I’m originally from Islip. It’s actually ironic that I moved out here because my ancestors were some of the early settlers.

Were you aware of that before you moved here?
Yeah, my grandmother was into genealogy. She knew all about it and she would talk to us about it.

How long will you be here?
Maybe just a few weeks. I’m waiting to get assigned to more work. Painting -- that’s what I do. I spray naval ships, but I might try to get into some residential painting. I’m really kind of living off my savings right now and this seemed like a good place to do it.

Had you been to Mattituck before moving here?
I’ve been all over Long Island, I think it’s kind of hard not to when you grow up here. I’ve always liked the North Fork. I worked this end of the Island as a painter when I was a kid.

What do you like about being here now?
I like that it’s not that populated, but enough not to get lonely. It’s pretty. It’s very serene. There’s a lot of good people here. I started going to this church and ended up volunteering here by accident.

How?
I used to volunteer at the Salvation Army in Riverhead, and one day I was walking by here while this was going on and I saw a bunch of homeless guys that I knew from there. So I stopped to talk to them and ended up coming to help out. They put me to work right away.

How would you define Mattituck?
It’s rustic but it has an urban flare. I don’t want to say simple, but, there’s a way of life there that’s reminiscent of a time past. You wave to somebody here and they wave back.