Hope Springs Eternal, a second chance boutique located at 19 Cherub Lane, Port Jefferson Station (next to Port Jeff Bowl) will hold a huge estate sale fundraiser on Saturday, June 7 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
All types of antiques, furniture, clothing, china, porcelain/bisque dolls, oil paintings and more!
All proceeds will benefit Hope House Ministries in Port Jefferson, celebrating their 45th anniversary year!
For more information, call 631-509-1101.
Hope House Ministries received a much-needed new roof thanks to a donation from King Quality Roofing and Siding. The Long Island-based contractor installed the roof at Hope House’s Emmaus House, located at 202 Stonyhill Road in Port Jefferson on Sept. 27.
Hope House Ministries, founded in 1980, provides critical residential, counseling and educational services to young people and families in crisis. The ministry has served more than 350,000 individuals.
After discovering that the roof of Emmaus House had a hole and needed to be replaced, King Quality CEO Jeff Brett knew he wanted to give back to the ministry that has done meaningful work in the community.
“For over 44 years, Hope House has been a beacon of hope, saving lives and offering compassionate care to the most vulnerable among us,” Brett said. “This roof donation is a small way for King Quality to express our gratitude to Father Frank and the entire Hope House team for the life-changing work they do.”
“I’ve known Jeff since he was a teenager and the ways he has given back, not just to Hope House but to various programs in our larger community, is truly extraordinary,” said Father Francis Pizzarelli. “He gives me hope that the world can be a better place because of young men like him.”
This donation marks the latest initiative under King Quality Cares, the contractor’s charitable arm dedicated to supporting and raising awareness for charities and community organizations across Long Island. Last year, King Quality donated and installed a roof at Hope House’s Matt’s House in Port Jefferson.
In addition to King Quality’s contribution, GAF and ABC Supply Company generously provided the roofing materials needed to complete the project.
La Buena Vida Restaurant, 714 Montauk Highway, Moriches will host the 7th annual Pig Roast fundraiser to benefit Hope House Ministries in Port Jefferson on Wednesday, July 10 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. $30 donation per person includes dinner and soft drinks with a special musical performance by Tommy Mulvihill. Reservations suggested by calling 631-909-1985.
By Samantha Rutt
For 44 years, Hope House Ministries has been a place for the broken and lost.
Founded in the spirit of St. Louis de Montfort, what started as a neighborhood response to a neighborhood issue, has expanded its service area to include all of Long Island, New England and beyond.
Hope House Ministries began in 1980 as a 10-bed facility providing crisis intervention for young men aged 16 to 21, and has since expanded to a multifaceted human service agency with housing, counseling and educational assistance for individuals and families in crisis.
On April 22, the ministry hosted a celebration at the Hope Academy at Little Portion Friary in Mount Sinai, featuring a service presided over by founder and executive director Father Frank Pizzarelli. Alumni, volunteers and several members of the community were in attendance.
Hope House Ministries is located at 1 High St., Port Jefferson (www.hhm.org).
The Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Civic Association addressed issues regarding the unhoused at its general meeting Tuesday, July 25.
The civic meeting was joined by Father Francis Pizzarelli, founder and executive director of Hope House Ministries in Port Jefferson, as well as officers from the Suffolk County Police Department and members of an organization that helps the homeless
During the meeting, Pizzarelli shared his experience assisting the homeless, including his meeting of a homeless Vietnam war veteran 35 years ago who was sleeping in a box village in the middle of winter.
The distraught veteran, who was most likely struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, came to Pizzarelli after one of his friends who was also living in the box village froze to death.
After finding there was little help offered for homeless veterans, Pizzarelli started Pax Christi Hospitality Center, an emergency shelter for men in Port Jefferson.
Pizzarelli expressed that a stronger partnership is needed between social services, the community and law enforcement. However, Pizzarelli also noted that law enforcement’s hands are tied in many situations, though they have always “been willing to be a part of the conversation.”
Pizzarelli highlighted the lack of treatment facilities and steps in place to help people in the homeless community.
“The social networking that was in place 35 years ago is nonexistent,” Pizzarelli said. “It’s just a repetitive cycle of setting people up for failure.”
For example, there is a lack of transitional housing for people once they leave a shelter such as Pax Christi, and the ones that are there, “you wouldn’t want a rat to live in,” he said.
A Suffolk County police officer spoke about what is and is not considered a crime when it comes to homelessness, and the role that the police can play.
“We’re not allowed to arrest people for being homeless, we’re not allowed to arrest people for begging,” the officer clarified.
“It used to be against the New York State Penal Law to stand in front of a business and beg. That was taken off the books, so what we’re left with is a [state] Vehicle and Traffic Law, because realistically, it’s not going to solve the problem, us arresting them at that specific moment,” the officer continued.
The officer said police can write a person a traffic ticket if they are on a road begging, which could possibly lead to a warrant and then an arrest, but reiterated the police cannot simply make an arrest for begging.
There are also laws in place that allow police to take a person into custody if they are deemed to be either a danger to themselves or others. However, the officer explained that the law’s threshold criteria is very high.
The police department has also put the Behavioral Health Unit to effect.
“We have these officers; they go out to these specific locations where the homeless people … are, and we try to attack it [by] offering them social services such as housing and drug counseling, and we hope that they will voluntarily take it,” the officer said.
Jessica Labia and Dwayne Brown of the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless were also in attendance to speak on issues. Labia furthered the point of the lack of resources, saying, “The more resources that are put into folks that are experiencing homelessness or low income on Long Island, the more we’re able to help them get into housing.”
She also suggested that arresting homeless people wasn’t helpful, as it can make it more difficult to house people when they have a criminal history.
Labia and Brown reminded everyone that homelessness was not just in the Port Jefferson Station area, but rather Long Island as a whole has between 3,000 and 4,000 homeless people on any given night.
La Buena Vida Restaurant, 714 Montauk Highway, Moriches will host the 6th annual Pig Roast fundraiser to benefit Hope House Ministries in Port Jefferson on Wednesday, July 26 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. $30 donation per person includes dinner and soft drinks with a special musical performance by Damaged Goods. Reservations suggested by calling 631-909-1985.
Hope House Ministries will host the 7th Annual Jake Engel Hoops for Hope Fundraiser at the Cedar Beach Basketball Court, 244 Harbor Beach Road in Mt. Sinai on Friday, July 28 from 4 to 8 p.m. with a 3v3 Basketball Tournament, food, music, basket prizes and raffles. All are welcome to enjoy a fun, exciting night. All proceeds to benefit Hope House Ministries. To register for the 3v3 tournament or for more information please call 631-473-8796 or email at [email protected].
Port Jefferson Middle School student William Harris knew he wanted to help out his local community as part of his mitzvah project this month.
Harris — who turned 13 in September and was supposed to have his long-awaited bar mitzvah that month — had to postpone his ceremony and the festivities that come around it.
“Originally I was going to do a blood drive, because people needed donations for blood,” he said. “But I couldn’t do it with the pandemic.”
That’s when he decided to team up with his principal, Robert Neidig, to encourage his class-mates to donate food to the local nonprofit Hope House Ministries.
“About a month ago, I made some flyers and I put them around the school,” William said. “We put it on the announcement every morning and people began bringing in food.”
Leza Di Bella, William’s mother, said he did this all by himself.
“He took the initiative,” she said. “Usually for these projects, parents are very involved. We were not at all.”
On Friday, June 11, he was joined at Hope House by his mother and father Richard, along with his school principal where he dropped off several dozen bags of food. Then after nearly nine months of waiting to celebrate this special day, his bar mitzvah was held at Temple Isaiah in Stony Brook on Saturday.
“I’m just so proud, not only of Will, but the respect that he has earned from his classmates. They would bring a can here and there and, as you can see, it all adds up,” Neidig said. “It’s all going to such a good cause I couldn’t be prouder. It’s a big time in his life and I’m happy that I could be a part of it.”
William said he’s not done with his donations yet.
“I feel like I did a good thing now,” he said.
The COVID-19 crisis has affected daily life for every resident, but it has especially created challenges for individuals seeking essential resources, and for the workers and volunteers who provide them. The ongoing health crisis has caused numerous facilities including homeless shelters and other nonprofit organizations to rethink how they operate for the time being.
For Stephen Brazeau, director of Pax Christi Hospitality Center in Port Jefferson, it has been business as usual at the facility, with a few exceptions.
“We’ve had an open-door policy at the center, but now we’ve locked the front door and have begun screening individuals who want to come in,” Brazeau said. “We usually have significant walk-in traffic and we’ve definitely seen a reduction in that.”
The director said they have seen anywhere from a 60-70 percent decrease in walk-ins.
Currently, the hospitality center has a total of four staff members working with a few volunteers, compared to an additional 10 interns and 40-plus volunteers, due to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) executive order limiting operations. Brazeau said the center’s 24 beds are occupied, and for individuals they can’t accommodate they are trying to set them up with an official from the county’s department of social services.
“We are doing our best to make sure these services and basic needs are continuing to be offered,” he said. “At the same time, we want our workers to be safe as well.”
In 2016, 3,960 individuals were deemed homeless on Long Island but more than half of those were children, according to a Long Island Coalition for the Homeless survey count. More than half of the surveyed homeless were children.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended homeless shelters minimize face-to-face staff interactions with clients, and limit visitors to the facility during the outbreak.
The state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance said in a directive to shelter providers, “congregate facilities, such as shelters for individuals experiencing homelessness, are especially at risk for the spread of communicable diseases due to the number of individuals living in close proximity.”
Brazeau said he is also concerned about undocumented individuals who may need a place to stay as well as food.
“A few of the places that they go to for meals have closed, so we have tried to lead them to churches, schools and other places that are offering them,” the director said.
For Celina Wilson, president of the Bridge of Hope Resource Center, she and her staff have had to adjust on the fly. Moving away from face-to-face interactions and meetings, they now try to do most of their work through phone calls and other technological means.
“Even though we are limited in mobility, we are still able to help and advise our clients on a number of issues,” Wilson said. “We call them, text them, FaceTime them and we walk them through whatever they need help with.”
The Port Jefferson Station-based resource center provides a number of counseling, mentoring and education services. It is working on a graphic informational guide on the coronavirus that will be published on its website. In addition, the center will list other resources available on the Island like sites for mobile food distribution.
“At this point we have to work together to get through this and keep people informed,” Wilson said.
By Fr. Francis Pizzarelli
Fall is a wonderful time of year. On the North Shore, we are reminded of the beauty of the change of the seasons, by the tapestry of colors as the leaves change. This beauty is unfolding despite the horrific political landscape that is demeaning and reprehensible. Hope still lives.
The opiate epidemic continues to claim record numbers of lives from every walk of life, from every socioeconomic system. However, people do recover, reclaim their lives and become productive, contributing members of our community.
For more than three decades, I have lived among the most broken and wounded among us. I’ve been blessed to see human miracles every day. I have witnessed some inspiring human transformations that have strengthened my commitment to stay the course, especially when it has been difficult.
Every fall I think of the countless lives that have enriched me. I also painfully remember those lives that have fallen into the cracks. Their remembrance always challenges me to do more and to never lose hope or give up.
As I think back over the years, I remember different young men from each decade who remind me of why I do what I do. I think of what has become of these men. Each decade has a wonderful group of shining stars. The common denominator is each man was lost, overwhelmed and profoundly wounded. They had lost their way, but with a lot of support and love, they developed coping skills, not only to survive but also to change and transform their lives. They became extraordinary men.
One young man who is now in his 50s is the father of three children. He lives in Wisconsin and is the executive director of a not-for-profit organization that services young people. He is active in his local church and works in youth ministry. Another young man from that decade is married with four children and is a practicing attorney for a large law firm in Chicago.
Another young man lives locally with his wife and twin boys. He is a successful financial broker. He has given back for more than 20 years, anonymously dropping off pizza to the main house every Saturday for dinner. The present community only know him as the “Pizza Boy.”
This group of men from the 1980s refer to themselves as a band of brothers. They continue to connect with each other on a regular basis. Distance has never been an obstacle for connecting.
The 1990s saw the house grow in number with a new band of brothers — more lawyers, teachers, tradesmen and social workers. They all make sure that if they are in town to stop by, say thank you and urge the present community to stay the course and not lose hope.
One of the men from this decade who lives and works out of state recently stopped by with his wife of 15 years and their 12-year-old son. In front of myself and members of the present community he said, “This was and is my home where I learned how to love myself and love others and it will always be where my heart is!”
The men from the 2000s are doing great things. One is an author and a founder of a not-for-profit wellness center, another is a social worker in charge of a street outreach to the poor, while another is in law school on a scholarship. There is also a young man who discovered his gift for music performance who recently received a full scholarship to a local college. He and a band of brothers, through music and song, celebrate the message of hope through recovery and wellness on an ongoing basis within our larger community.
These are just some of the many stories of hope that have sustained me and encouraged me for almost 40 years. A very important part of the story is you — the community; without your love, support and encouragement none of this would be possible. For all of you, I am forever grateful.
Fr. Pizzarelli, SMM, LCSW-R, ACSW, DCSW, is the director of Hope House Ministries in Port Jefferson.
