Emily Anne Epstein

Home At Last

Irene Kaplan, 67, has enjoyed decorating her new apartment with statuettes, books and pictures from calendars.

The transition into supportive housing was easy for her, but she noted, “One size doesn’t fit all.”

Mentally Ill Look for Home in NYC
by Amy Zimmer / Metro

For 16 years Irene Kaplan lived in a 200-bed home for mentally ill adults in Coney Island.

“You just twiddled your thumbs and smoked yourself to death,” she said. Last year, in an experiment, the state moved her and 59 others into their own apartments where they get visits from case workers. She quit smoking during her first week in a Brownsville apartment.

A Brooklyn federal judge, who found large scale homes violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, this month ordered the state to create 4,500 units of supportive housing like Kaplan’s.

Last week the state lost its bid to stay the court order.

While Kaplan says she found a new lease in life, others are concerned at having supportive housing next door. In Far Rockaway, where over half of Queens’ adult home residents reside — and where there are many vacant apartments that could become supportive housing — residents are bracing themselves.

“A number of these poor souls, quite frankly, should not be on their own,” said Jonathan Graska, district manager of the local community board. “Nurses have called us and said they won’t take their meds.”

Coco Cox’s neighbors in Norwood don’t know she spent three years in an adult home in Riverdale, but she doesn’t hide her visits from caseworkers — the point is to integrate.

“There are millions of people with mental illness,” Cox said. “They’re on the subway with you, working with you. You just don’t know it because they take care of themselves and take medications.”