Bill Cadelli needs help.
The 65-year-old disabled US Army veteran became a victim of the subprime mortgage crisis when he was hurriedly granted refinancing after he went unemployed in 2005, which led to his Westbury home of 36 years going into foreclosure this month. Estranged from his family, unable to receive emergency housing until he’s on the street—yet fearful of that day because he needs an electric-powered oxygen tank for his emphysema—he is waiting for the Nassau County Sheriff to evict him. He’s already on borrowed time as his last day in the house was supposed to be July 6.
“I have nothing more to lose except my life,” Cadelli says the day after he packed all of his belongings into a storage facility. It’s just a matter of time before he is homeless.
“I’m going to die in my car and no one gives a damn,” he says. He says he has exhausted all avenues from the county, state, federal and nonprofit veterans’ assistance agencies. His case may be extreme, but he is certainly not alone.
“We get about 20 veterans a day for all kinds of issues,” says Edward Aulman, director of the Nassau County Veterans Service Agency. His office in Plainview provides counseling for the likes of Cadelli—although this veteran in particular is convinced he’s helpless after the number of roadblocks he reports running into.
The Suffolk Veterans Service Agency provides similar services at offices in Hauppauge and at a satellite office in Riverhead with a similar volume of clients. Long Island is home to more than 250,000 veterans, a number that will continue to increase as soldiers return home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Adding to the frustrations that veterans confront while trying to navigate the red-tape-laden system was the New York State Division of Veterans’ Affairs decision to close its office at Hempstead Town Hall on June 29, where a counselor was on hand two days per week.
“Young veterans of wars fought in the last 10 years need this the most,” said Steve Owen, an Army veteran who fought in the Vietnam War, during a rally against the closing of the counseling center.
In its defense, the agency, which has the Long Island State Veterans Home at Stony Brook University, has plans in the works to open a satellite office in Nassau to help meet the growing demand for services, according to spokesman Jonathan Spier. The agency that runs the 350-bed skilled nursing and 40-slot adult day healthcare facility on the East End is in negotiations to open another 40-slot adult day health care facility on the grounds of Nassau University Medical Center. The new location would feature a 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. program where the registrants can receive medical care, food, physical and occupational therapy and dentistry services.
“It’s a nursing home almost without walls,” explains Spier, because the clients can return home at the end of the day.
Spier says Nassau was targeted because of its “high saturation of veterans.” The new facility will offer services to veterans from across Nassau and will accept Medicaid and private pay, as well as applying veterans’ federal per diem discount, which is about $66 per day. It is slated to be up and running within the next year.
“There’s really [few] care programs set up for veterans in Nassau County,” he says. “Keeping the veterans in the community, being an active part of society while being in safe, supervised environment and getting their healthcare needs taken care of—that’s our goal.”
Nonprofits are expanding their reach to serve the latest wave of veterans as well.
The Soldiers Project, a national organization that opened an office on Long Island in November, is focused on veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The group consists of a network of private, volunteer licensed mental health professionals across LI and offers free counseling and support to military service members and their loved ones.
“In the military, you’re not supposed to complain about these things,” says Dr. Susan Cohen, a clinical specialist in psychiatric and mental health nursing who coordinates the group’s outreach programs from her Lynbrook office. “It’s a population that doesn’t come easily to therapy and we’re hoping that, through the families, if they recognize that there are these behaviors that are not okay, that the family would reach out.”
There are currently 7,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan on LI, says Cohen, with about 2,000 more expected by 2010.
The Nassau County Veterans Service Agency is hosting a Homeless Veterans Stand Down on Monday, July 20 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at their office at 1425 Old Country Rd. in Plainview.