MercyFirst Closing Syosset Foster Program After Break-Ins

SYOSSET, NY — After five teens from its shelter were arrested and charged with breaking into a dozen businesses in Syosset, MercyFirst has announced that it will be closing the shelter.

On the morning of June 7, business owners in Syosset arrived at their stores to find the front doors and windows smashed, and many burglarized. A dozen businesses were targeted, and suffered thousands of dollars in damages.

Nassau County police traced the actions back to five teenagers at the MercyFirst facility on Convent Road in Syosset.

"We do not tolerate this behavior and are devastated that our local businesses have been harmed in this manner," MercyFirst wrote in a statement, "and we are cooperating fully with the local authorities in their investigation."

In response to the incident, MercyFirst said that the five teens who were arrested had been removed from the home on the Syosset campus.

The organization said that it was also taking responsibility for the damages, and would reimburse businesses that were affected.

But the biggest announcement the agency made was that it would be closing the residential foster care program at the Syosset campus. MercyFirst said it was a voluntary decision. It is coordinating with the state and local government, and said it is expected to be done "in the near future."

"The Residential Foster Care program is one of three programs operated on our campus and has been the source of all issue in the local community related to MercyFirst," the organization wrote. "Children from our other two Syosset campus programs — our START with Hope program for unaccompanied refugee children and the Raise the Age Program — have not been involved in other incidents in the Syosset community and played no part in the events on June 7."

MercyFirst, which was founded in 1894, provides care for more than 3,200 children, teenagers and their families in sites in Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk. It operates family support programs, foster home and adoption service, treatment family foster care, community-based group homes, mother/child residences and campus-based residential treatment programs.