Homeless on Long Island: Navigating a life of motels and shelters

Arya Ranganathan didn’t intend to be homeless for long.

The 37-year-old from Westbury separated from her two daughters’ father more than four years ago and he fell behind on child support payments. So, in 2021, she turned to the Nassau County Department of Social Services for help.

"I thought it was going to be, at least maybe a year and a half, two," said Ranganathan, who has three other children with an ex-husband who is no longer in the country. "I was going to find a place, but I guess God had other plans."

Ranganathan is one of the growing number of people on Long Island who struggle to meet the cost of living and rely on DSS for survival. Their sleeping arrangements remain bound to where the department tells them to stay, sometimes ensuring a lesser quality of life.

Her youngest daughter was 9 months old when they moved to the Bethany House shelter that September and she has celebrated every birthday since without a permanent home. The family stayed at Bethany for two years and then went to the Extended Stay of America hotel in Bethpage, where they stayed for three years.

She and her daughters, now 5 and 6, were forced out of there when a frozen pipe burst in February. The resulting flood forced her and other residents to move to a motel in Melville. About a month later, she was back in one of the county's shelters. She and her daughters share a single room there. The shower water there can sometimes take five minutes to turn from brown to clear, she said, and the heat is not reliable. 

"My daughters ... they're still young, so it doesn’t really faze them," Ranganathan said. "They don't really know ... what homeless is."

Homeless ranks on LI growing

Long Island's homeless population rose 32% between 2022 and 2024, according to a report from the New York State Comptroller’s Office. 

According to the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless, as of 2024, there were approximately 500 families with children in shelter and over 1,100 single adults in shelter. 

Mike Giuffrida, the coalition's associate director, said homelessness and displacements are on the rise due to lack of affordable housing. In Nassau, the majority of homeless families are placed in motel rooms as most shelters are already full.

Between April 2024 and March 2025, Nassau County spent $58 million on placing families in motels — the highest amount a county spent on contracts in the state not including New York City, according to the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. More recent figures were not available.

"Environments like this that are not conducive to putting people and their needs first will continue to lead to people staying in survival mode and not able to focus on their next steps back to stability," Giuffrida said.

Ranganathan said because she and her children do not have disability or illness, they qualify to stay at a shelter, according to DSS protocol. 

DSS did not return multiple calls from Newsday seeking comment.

Ranganathan said she is a certified phlebotomist and has college credits from Long Island University Brooklyn and SUNY Old Westbury. But to accommodate her children's schedules, she found work as a companion to hospice patients, the elderly and others. She now works with a 91-year-old man with memory issues.

Ranganathan said being homeless, and staying homeless, can happen to anyone. She said she has met professionals, such as teachers and retired police officers, in her same situation.

"There are people that don't want to work, that don't want to get up and go to school and do something with their lives ... and take advantage of the system," she said. "I get that, but the people that are trying ... you shouldn't, you know, look at everybody the same."

"You have people that are in situations that ... it's a little bit hard to get out of," she said.

Struggling to find housing

Originally from Queens, Ranganathan and her father moved to Westbury when she was in the sixth grade. She has found it impossible to find affordable housing for her family, even with the help of DSS, which would give her a housing budget ranging from $1,400 to $1,600 per month.

"What place are you really going to find on Long Island for $1,500 for three people?" she said.

Ranganathan said this is less than what DSS would pay for her hotel room, which pays a maximum of $200 per night. She also receives cash assistance of about $600 per month and food stamps. 

Ranganathan said her 71-year-old father, who is from India, helps financially with the care of her three older sons but he has health problems and can't take on more. Her mother, who is from Guyana, died the day after Ranganathan's first daughter was born. 

She said she shared her story to give people insight into how people can fall into homelessness, and sometimes stay there.

"Try not to judge the people that are homeless, try to listen to ... someone's story," she said. "Try to understand, instead of judging."