Our History
2005 - with funding assistance from a HUD grant, MOMMAS purchases a two-family residence in East Massapequa and opens it for use as permanent apartment residence for graduates of the group residence program.
2006 - our Brookville home moves to Jericho, to a historical house of the original Quaker settlement.
2007 - With a grant from Nassau County, MOMMAS opens another group residence in a lovely neighborhood located in Hempstead, NY.
2016 – MOMMAS House celebrates 30 years of providing homes and support to homeless mothers and their babies.
2018 - By way of a capital campaign, MOMMAS purchases a house in Hempstead. With renovation help from Northwell Health, Rebuilding Together LI and many volunteers, our fourth home opens its doors, capable of housing up to 5 more families.
Today - MOMMAS House currently operates four mother-child group residences in Glen Cove, Jericho and Hempstead, plus one permanent housing program in East Massapequa.
HER Story is our story…
As a college student, Pat Shea spent several months as a missionary in Mexico where she witnessed desolation, poverty and its effect on children. She returned determined to make a difference in the lives of our society’s most vulnerable. As a social worker, she witnessed the tremendous impact family, or the lack thereof, had on a child’s life and the tortured decisions some young women were forced to make when faced with pregnancy, aging out of foster care and having little education and nowhere to go. In 1970, she established the branch of Birthright of Nassau/Suffolk to provide services to women facing unplanned or crisis pregnancies. Through this organization Pat, and other volunteers, helped provide women with access to prenatal care, pregnancy and parenting resources and when needed, adoption information. While Birthright improved health outcomes of newborns and mothers, the lack of housing and opportunity was still not sufficiently addressed -- critical for those progressing out of poverty. Shea sheltered women in her own home for 10 years. "Eventually I realized that they needed a lot more than just a roof over their heads," said Shea. "They needed a program, so we developed one." In 1986, Pat Shea, along with family and friends, opened MOMMAS House, the only program in the metro NY region specifically serving pregnant and or parenting young mothers (18-24) and their babies.
By offering shelter and supportive services for up to 2 years, women learn to become independent working mothers. MOMMAS House now operates 5 residences and have touched the lives of over 1000 families and counting.
1986 - The first residence opened in Wantagh through the generosity of Joe Haley, a local businessman. Joe allowed MOMMAS House to build and develop the program for four years in his rental property.
1989 - The parish of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Malverne offers the use of an empty building on their property. The parish and village community of Malverne refurbishes this lovely old house into a beautiful home and the program moves into this location.
1994 - St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Brookville offers the use of their former convent. This kindness makes the second MOMMAS House a reality.
1997 - A third MOMMAS house opened in the former Rectory of St. Rocco's Church in Glen Cove. Then Mayor of Glen Cove, Tom Suozzi, requested that a residence be opened in his city, as the need was very great.
