Tunnel to Towers Foundation to open 42 apartments for veterans in Island Park

Long Island veterans will soon be able to apply for one of 42 new apartments in Island Park, where the nonprofit Tunnel to Towers Foundation will offer hard-to-find affordable housing on the site of a former blighted motel.

Several hundred people, including dozens of veterans and uniformed officers, attended a ceremony Friday to break ground on Island Park Veterans Village at 3915 Austin Blvd.

Tunnel to Towers, which is dedicated to helping families of fallen first responders and veterans, will spend $20 million to develop the apartments after Nassau County donated the 15-acre site to the foundation last year. After the site changed hands late last fall, the foundation demolished the former Long Beach Motor Inn, which had remained shuttered since it was heavily damaged by Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

The building is part of a national push by the foundation to build housing for former military service members. The initiative, begun in 2023, seeks to help the nearly 33,000 U.S. veterans who have experienced homelessness, according to data from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

But the new apartments aim to serve a broader population of veterans struggling to find housing on Long Island, like those facing eviction, sleeping on a family member's couch or searching for housing after a divorce, said Gavin Naples, the foundation's senior vice president.

"Affordable housing is not a veterans' issue," Naples said. "It's an American issue, and people are struggling."

Two of the foundation's complexes have opened so far in Houston and Atlanta, and about 15 others are set to open through 2028. The foundation's goal is to open 100 complexes with 12,500 housing units over the next decade, Naples said.

The project is designed to offer veterans affordable housing, which is increasingly hard to find in Nassau. Asking rents for studios on Long Island averaged about $2,225 in the first quarter, according to real estate data and analytics company CoStar. That data covers only professionally managed buildings with at least five units and excludes affordable housing developments.

Available rentals in Island Park ranged from a $2,500 two-bedroom house to a $5,750 three-bedroom condo, Apartments.com listings showed Friday.

Naples said the nonprofit had not yet determined rents for the property but they would meet affordable housing standards set by Nassau County.

The foundation plans to hire 17 on-site staff to provide support services, including case management, employment help, financial services and mental health support, Naples said.  

Given the steep increase in housing costs in the area, providing affordable apartments for veterans could make a huge difference in whether they can reintegrate into the community, said Eric Tobkes, 56, of Long Beach, who served 30 years with the Army Reserve.

"It's a huge check box," he said. "You take that off your list of concerns, and now you can focus on other things, whether it's mental health [or] job skills."

The apartments will be about 450 square feet and are intended for single occupants. They are expected to open in late 2027 or early 2028, Naples said. The ground floor will include a library, gym, multipurpose room, dining lounge and workforce development area, he said.

End of an eyesore

The motel's demolition and the plan for new apartments resolve a more than decadelong quest to find a new use for the site. After Sandy, county officials blocked the motel from reopening following residents' concerns about crime there and the county's use of it as housing for homeless people and sex offenders, Newsday reported in 2013.

The county purchased the site for $3.6 million in 2017, and had sought approval to sell it to an affordable housing developer for $1.15 million to build around 20 apartments in 2020, but that plan did not move forward.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said at the event Friday the county approached the foundation about building veterans housing rather than selling the site to a developer.

"For many, many years on this site was a dilapidated hotel," Blakeman said. "It was an eyesore. The neighborhood complained about it."

He added: "This village right here shows our commitment to the American military veterans that served our country."

Joe Annarella, 68, of Island Park, said he appreciated that the county didn't focus on maximizing profits by selling to a developer of condos, houses or shops.

"That's done over and over," said Annarella, a former chief for the Island Park Fire Department. "Nobody comes in and says we want to do something special."

Veterans interested in an apartment can apply online at t2t.org/homeless-veteran-program/veterans-villages/. The foundation conducts a screening process and veterans who have been dishonorably discharged or convicted of sexual-based offenses or other major crimes are ineligible, Naples said. 

The Tunnel to Towers Foundation was formed in 2001 to honor firefighter Stephen Siller, who raced through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel with 60 pounds of gear to the World Trade Center on 9/11. Siller was one of 12 members of the FDNY's Squad 1 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, who died when the towers collapsed. Siller, the youngest of seven, left behind a wife and five young children.