By Hank Kalet, Online Editor
The recent cold snap which plunged temperatures into the teens at night was pretty hard to take.
Frozen roads made driving difficult and kept many of us from venturing outside except when we absolutely had to.
And we are the lucky ones. There are an estimated 35,000 homeless people in New Jersey, many of whom are people working at low-wage jobs and still unable to keep up with the high cost of housing in the state, according to the New Jersey Advocacy Network to End Homelessness.
For them, winter’s harsh weather “places the health and safety of this population at severe risk,” according to an op-ed by Richard Brown, the organization’s chairman. The op-ed, which has been published in several New Jersey newspapers, calls on politicians to make ending homelessness a priority in New Jersey and nationally.
It’s difficult to argue when groups like the Crisis Ministry of Princeton and Trenton are reporting that they are serving an increasing number of people at their facilities due to the faltering economy 1,400 at the Crisis Ministry’s two locations in October, compared with an average of about 1,200 a month.
According to the Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness, there are more than 1,200 people who experience homelessness in the county and more than 3,000 men, women and children will receive some homelessness or antipoverty services over the course of an average year.
The numbers are similar in other Central Jersey counties, especially in urban areas like Trenton and New Brunswick.
Nationally, according to the anti-hunger group Feeding America, food bank and soup kitchen use is up about 30 percent and homelessness is on the rise, as well. A U.S. Conference of Mayors survey released in December reported a 12 percent increase in homelessness between 2007 and 2008 and that doesn’t include the impact of about eight months of awful economic news.
That’s why a concerted effort to battle homelessness is needed, including income supports and expanded support services, an aggressive effort to build more affordable housing and universal, single-payer healthcare that takes medical bills out of the equation as one of the leading causes of bankruptcy and homelessness.
That’s an ambitious agenda. In the short term, however, legislation that recently passed the state Assembly A3101 and awaits a Senate vote could help. The legislation, called the County Homelessness Trust Fund Act, would allow the state’s 21 counties to create a trust fund using a new $3 surcharge imposed on all documents recorded with the counties, like deeds, mortgages and other paperwork.
The money would be used for grants that would provide for:
”acquisition, construction or rehabilitation” of permanent housing for the homeless or those at risk of homelessness;
rental-assistance vouchers;
and support and prevention services.
The trust funds, according to the Advocacy Network, would “leverage … scarce funding” and “help thousands of families and individuals in New Jersey move into permanent housing.”
”States across the country have helped localities dramatically reduce their homeless populations by enabling them to fund the implementation of local plans to end homelessness through local Trust Funds,” the organization’s Web site says. “In these states, this has resulted in a reduction of costs to the public sector and community.”
A Washington state trust fund “assisted more than 200 low-income, homeless individuals and their families,” enabling them to “be able to move into stable housing where they can receive the supportive services they need to maintain that housing,” the organization says. It was part of a larger goal of reducing homelessness in Washington by 50 percent over 10 years a goal the state is making steady progress toward meeting.
”The same results can and will happen in New Jersey,” the organization says.
The New Jersey Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee endorsed the legislation by a 4-0 vote on Dec. 8, with one abstention. It now awaits a vote of the full Senate, where advocates are hopeful that it will pass.
In the meantime, however, residents of Central Jersey should do what they can to help groups like the Crisis Ministry, the Mercer Alliance, HomeFront, Coming Home and MIPH (formerly the Middlesex Interfaith Partners with the Homeless) in Middlesex County, the Burlington County Action Program, HABcore in Monmouth County and others aid those living without a home of their own.
Hank Kalet is online editor and columnist for the Princeton Packet newspaper group. His e-mail is [email protected] and his blog, Channel Surfing, can be found at www.kaletblog.com.
