Former resident, a 95-year-old veteran, slams Island Shores’ after conversion into NYC migrant shelter

Frank Tammaro was one of the lucky ones.

When the owners of his former assisted living facility, Island Shores Senior Residence in Midland Beach, made it clear he was no longer welcome, Tammaro, 95, had a strong support system in place. After a brief stay at another senior living center, he now resides with his daughter, Barbara Annunziata.

Tammaro had to leave his former home by March of this year, and just six months later, the city has contracted with Island Shores’ owner, a non-profit organization called Homes for the Homeless, to set up one of its more-than 200 migrant shelters around the five boroughs.

“I thought my suitcases were going to be on the curb,” Tammaro, who keeps a sense of humor despite the circumstances, said of when he received notice that he was no longer welcome at Island Shores. “If it wasn’t for my daughter, they would’ve been on the curb.”

Not everyone who called Island Shores home has been so lucky, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/South Brooklyn said during a Monday press briefing, and now she and her fellow elected officials are looking for answers.

Malliotakis — joined by State Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton (D-North Shore/South Brooklyn), Assemblyman Michael Tannousis (R-East Shore/South Brooklyn), City Councilman David Carr (R-Mid-Island) — said she had filed a Freedom of Information Law request with the city.

The congresswoman said she’s seeking information about the contract between Homes for the Homeless and Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, when contact began between the two entities regarding Island Shores, and what’s happened to the other people who used to live there.

“Frank is very fortunate to have a loving family and a support system,” she said. “We know that there are seniors that were in that facility that did not have that support system.”

News first broke of changes coming to the location in September of last year, when the Advance/SILive.com reported that Homes for the Homeless was moving to sell the building.

In a Sept. 26, 2022 letter to residents, Island Shores’ management sent notice that a possible sale meant the 53 people living there would need to find new housing by March 1, 2023.

Tammaro was one of a group of eight veterans at Island Shores the Advance/SILive.com highlighted last November when the Richmond County Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (RCDAR), held a Veterans Day luncheon for them and other residents of the facility.

City officials confirmed Sept. 19, about six months after Tammaro and his fellow residents had been sent packing, that they would convert the site into a shelter to house some of the more than 60,000 migrants currently in the city’s care.

“We have veterans that were kicked out of their homes, seniors kicked out of their homes after staying there for a number of years,” Tannousis said. “We have been hitting City Hall, but in actuality our constituents have to take a long hard look at these not-for-profits and the type of deals that they are making. They are lining their pockets with our tax dollars. Our constituents have a right to know where their tax money is going.”

Homes for the Homeless had initially said it would be seeking a buyer to continue the senior living arrangement at Island Shores, but that never came to fruition despite local elected officials’ claims that they brought multiple interested parties to the non-profit’s attention.

Carr and the other elected officials said their attempts to broker a deal were met with no genuine responses from the non-profit organization. Eventually, Homes for the Homeless told them they would be taking the site off the market, Carr said. Representatives for the non-profit organization have deferred to the city when asked for comment about the situation at Island Shores.

“There was dead silence. Only to be followed up a couple weeks later with ‘We’re taking it off the market. We’re no longer interested in selling,” Carr said. “What happened over the course of the previous eight to 10 months that made this institution go from wanting to sell...to now, a shelter. Clearly, someone at Homes for the Homeless saw an opportunity. An opportunity for them to get another profitable contract, and do what they do in other places.”

The elected officials pointed to reporting from the New York Post that highlighted a similar 2019 incident when Homes for the Homeless kicked seniors out of an assisted living facility in Manhattan.

Since the city announced the Island Shores shelter, the location has been the site of a series of protests against the shelter similar to what’s been seen outside the former St. John Villa Academy where the city opened another migrant shelter in August.

Scarcella-Spanton said Villa, where the city had promised to open a new public school, and Island Shores are examples of the impact the migrant crisis is having on the city.

“What we’re seeing right now is the true cracks in our foundation coming to light,” she said. “We will do everything we can to get to the bottom of this. It’s not right that this is what our community is dealing with and facing.”