Northwell Street Medicine brings care to unhoused residents in Suffolk County

Northwell Health’s Street Medicine team is meeting unhoused Long Islanders where they are, from Brentwood and Hauppauge to Freeport, bringing care into parking lots, gas stations, train stations, shopping centers, wooded encampments and even highway ramps. The goal is simple but urgent: catch illness, paperwork barriers and housing instability early, before they push people into emergency rooms or leave them untreated altogether.

Led by nurse practitioner Mary Mahoney, the program is the only health care organization on Long Island doing street medicine in both Nassau and Suffolk counties. A van stocked with medical and seasonal supplies travels community to community, with the team showing up in places that clinic-based systems often miss. Northwell said the effort began as a pilot in May 2024 and expanded into 41 communities by June 2025, from Hempstead to Wading River.

The footprint has grown quickly. Northwell said the first nine months reached 54 unique patients through 103 encounters, with five people helped into housing and four more pending placement. Nineteen patients were referred to specialists for advanced care. Northwell later said the team had carried out roughly 160 visits to more than 70 patients, driven about 5,000 miles and helped more than 100 individuals in more than 400 interactions.

The need has only deepened as food prices, rent and the shortage of affordable apartments continue to squeeze Suffolk families. For many people, coming up with first month’s rent, last month’s rent and a security deposit is enough to tip them into crisis. Northwell said the most recent Point-In-Time Count showed more than 4,500 unhoused adults and children across Long Island, the highest total since 2007, and the team now sometimes sees up to five clients a day, spending at least an hour with each one because the needs are so extensive.

That care goes beyond bandages and basic exams. The team helps people get into hospitals when they need higher-level treatment, gathers medical assessments required for housing applications and assists job seekers with resumes and other steps toward employment. Scott of Brentwood said the visits changed how he sees the program, saying, “They treat me like I’m their family.”

The health side of the crisis is moving in step with the housing side. On June 5, New York State awarded $6.1 million to repair and preserve emergency, transitional and supportive housing statewide, including $600,000 for Long Island Community Housing Innovations to rehabilitate four single-family homes with 17 beds of permanent supportive housing in Suffolk County for families that have experienced homelessness. For Suffolk, the message is blunt: street medicine can slow the flow into crisis, but stable housing remains the long-term fix.