Formerly homeless: Wading River Motel a model facility

Aug. 15, 2011

To the Editor:

I was a guest at the Wading River Motel just about a month ago. My feeling is that the raid included “identification” because the DSS continues to maintain that most of the emergency shelter residents “supposedly” are Riverhead residents who “need” to reside there because of the importance of keeping children in their same school district and when I was there, this was NOT the case. Nor was it the case that there were battered women there either, so Riverhead Town may have been trying to check on that.

The majority of the rooms housed families of three or four and the rooms ARE setup for that. I will tell you that NONE of the rooms were overcrowded.

The staff IS COMPLETELY NON-JUDGMENTAL and they did their utmost to keep ALL the residents safe and decently comfortable. THE PLACE IS CLEAN.

There are absolutely NO bugs except the occasional spider like anywhere else. BELIEVE ME I WAS SCARED to be there but,  after a few nights, was relieved. EVERYTHING — IS ON A SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM.

Most cooking is done by microwave just FYI.(Homeless — what can you do? You have to be grateful for a roof!) When the staff is able to be on the lawn to supervise they allow you to use the outdoor grills which is great for the children to have a real “cooked” meal.

The owner and staff were constantly upgrading and repairing things on a daily basis. They never treated anyone LESS THAN A GUEST and were always kind to children — UNLIKE MANY OTHER EMERGENCY FACILITIES.

I was there for about three weeks and during that time everyone got along — yes, even with ALL 37 rooms being FULL! You always have the occasional person breaking the rules/laws but everything was immediately addressed by staff and taken care of quietly.  Anyone who refused to comply was immediately discharged — immediately!

I can’t speak for whether or not the landlord has proper permits for the thousand different entities that demand them, but I can say that I feel SURE that he and his staff are not trying to skirt anything. All along they have been complying and trying to improve everything for the people. TRULY – I can tell you this is a MODEL facility (I unfortunately have recently been through enough of the GOD AWFUL – EMERGENCY system to know) and from what I understand they have offered their rooms to DSS/Homeless for many years.

Again – as far as battered women alone with their kids, I didn’t meet any, and as far as the motel being utilized to keep kids in their school district, I only knew of two families from Riverhead. I also really don’t understand the importance of keeping kids in the same exact district while homeless especially when most families find permanent housing OUTSIDE the district — because they have to accept what they can — so ultimately most of the kids don’t stay in the same district anyway. Maybe it has to do with the cost of busing the children under the McKinney Vento Act while they are homeless.

I hope and PRAY that my FAMILY never has to be in this situation again, EVER. It is a VERY UNKIND SYSTEM here in Suffolk – ESPECIALLY TO THE DISABLED.

Name withheld