By KENNY WALTER
Staff Writer
OCEANPORT — A proposed temporary homeless shelter has found a permanent home.
Oceanport Mayor Jay Coffey said the homeless shelter, which is required to be in Oceanport, will be constructed on the site of Building 906 and Building 908 at Fort Monmouth and not at a previously discussed location, which was widely ridiculed by borough officials and residents.
“We’re thrilled with the fact that the county, FMERA [Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority] and Oceanport were able to work together to move the homeless shelter from Building 901,” Coffey said. “I can’t tell you how pleased I am.
“They ended up moving it from the 901 building to a building 500 yards west.”
The shelter will be located on a three-acre parcel on Murphy Drive, where building 906 and building 908 currently stand. According to Coffey, the county will demolish the two existing buildings and construct a 4,000-plus-square-foot shelter building.
He said the shelter will be utilized as temporary housing for up to 13 men and 10 women at a time.
The decision clears the way for the borough to possibly purchase the Building 901 site and construct a municipal complex to replace the complex destroyed by superstorm Sandy.
While it is a legal requirement that a homeless shelter be placed in Oceanport, borough residents have long fought to have the shelter pushed farther away from residential neighborhoods and be built at the back-end of the fort.
While the FMERA meetings are generally sparsely attended, Oceanport residents crowded a meeting last August to voice concerns over the shelter and the impact it would have on property values, At least one resident said he is considering moving from the borough if the shelter is located near his neighborhood.
Coffey said while the county does have the ability to move the shelter in the future, the intent is to keep it at the proposed location for the foreseeable future.
“The county could move it if they wanted to, but they are proposing it as a long-term use,” Coffey said.
According to Coffey, FMERA also announced that the Avenue of Memories, which runs from Route 35 in Eatontown and comes out on Oceanport Avenue in Oceanport, may soon be open to the public.
Coffey said the road will be conveyed to the county once the U.S. Army conveys it to FMERA. According to the FMERA website, the road is expected to be open to the public this fall.