By JACQUELINE DURETT
Correspondent
SOUTH RIVER — A local filmmaker is ready to share a revamped version of his exploration into the lives of both those who are homeless and those who are trying to help them.
Jack Ballo’s documentary, “Destiny’s Bridge,” was finished in 2013 and is about the existence of Tent City in Lakewood and Minister Steve Brigham, who served as a resource at the encampment for the homeless. The film, Ballo said, was screened at festivals and local venues, but was never officially released.
“The 2013 version of the film ended with a relatively happy ending since the judge was refusing to evict the homeless,” Ballo explained.
However, he added, the following year, Tent City, Lakewood Township and Ocean County reached a settlement to close the encampment. As part of the agreement, each resident would receive a year of free housing.
Ballo kept filming and captured the eventual demolition of Tent City.
For Ballo, that was not the end either, as he was looking at the bigger issue of homelessness. As part of his work, he captured the story of a 73-year-old man named Sam who watched his wooden shack in the woods be demolished.
“I put a clip of the scene on YouTube, and it went viral,” he said, and a nonprofit organization in Pennsylvania called Make It Rain built a a tiny house for Sam and presented it to him a year ago.
Brigham, he said, had been advocating for tiny houses as a solution — a concept proposed in other areas of the country as well, and Ballo decided to incorporate that story into his existing film.
“So, the 2016 new version of the documentary was completely re-edited, going more into Minister Steve’s vision for a tiny house community called Destiny’s Bridge,” Ballo said.
Are tiny houses, a niche movement that advocates for simple living in a small space, a solution for homelessness? Ballo says they are a great alternative to people sleeping in tents in the woods.
“All people should be allowed to live in a house that they can afford,” he said.
Ballo said he is in favor of tiny houses for anyone — not just those without somewhere to live — looking for the cost-effective lifestyle that comes with such an eco-friendly living arrangement.
“A basic tiny house can be built for approximately $25,000, making it affordable for someone who works for minimum wage,” he said.
But there are obstacles, he said, and part of the goal of the film is advocacy in overcoming them.
“Zoning laws and minimum building requirements make it illegal to live in tiny houses in New Jersey as well as most states throughout the country,” he said. “That’s the point of this movement — to make tiny houses legal.”
He said even Sam was not allowed to keep his tiny house because it was not legal for him to live in it in New Jersey.
“Even though Sam owned a brand new tiny house, he ended up going back to the woods where he spent the next year living in a tent,” Ballo said.
Ballo walked the talk as well. To promote the film, he toured from New Jersey to Florida with a tiny house.
“We stopped at key areas down the East Coast where tiny houses for the homeless plans have already started,” he said. “We found out that at most of the places we went to there was either opposition from the government or funding issues for tiny house communities.”
Unfortunately, Ballo said, the areas he visited that had proposed plans for a tiny house community had yet to see any ground broken to make those plans a reality.
The new iteration of “Destiny’s Bridge” premiered on Aug. 17 in Asbury Park and is now available on DVD. It was screened at theaters, colleges and churches, as well as a homeless shelter and another encampment like Lakewood’s Tent City.
To find out more about the film as well as see a clip of Sam’s story, visit www.DestinysBridge.com.