They Have Beds, but Not the Ones They Want

NORMAN BLOOMFIELD sat hunched over on his sagging twin bed at Surf Manor, a small adult home in Coney Island, and wondered why he was still there.

An elfin man with a shock of fine gray hair, Mr. Bloomfield, 60, spent three months in the psychiatric ward of Maimonides Medical Center in 2001. He then applied to Surf Manor, a faded red brick building on a bleak stretch of Surf Avenue, thinking it would serve as a temporary residence between the hospital and independent housing.

But his months at Surf Manor have turned into years, because he cannot find another place to live.

Surf Manor is one of 65 private, state-licensed facilities in the city that house a total of more than 8,000 residents. These institutions, known as adult homes, have become de facto repositories for people who have psychiatric disorders but who, like Mr. Bloomfield, can live independently.

“Some people need day-to-day assistance, but some are extremely high functioning,” Mr. Bloomfield said one afternoon in his drab yellow room, which he shares with a roommate. “It’s unfair and irrational when people who could be independent end up in a place like this and languish for years.”

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