Princeton University’s Public Safety Department is addressing concerns about homeless citizens in the waiting area at Princeton’s Dinky NJ Transit station while temperatures decline.
The waiting area inside the station is heated during the winter and is home to the Dinky shuttle train that runs from the Princeton train station to the Princeton Junction train station, which connects to Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor.
“Public Safety officers respond to concerns about any disruptive behavior in the enclosed waiting area at Princeton station, which is primarily designed to accommodate transit passengers. The officers work to make resources available to any member of the public who is in need of assistance,” said Michael Hotchkiss, spokesman for Princeton University.
Princeton Police Department officials said the police department would only step in if there was a major situation.
“Chief of Police Nicholas Sutter said the protocol would contact the human services department and try to work with the person who is homeless if there were any issues at the station waiting area,” said Princeton Administrator Marc Dashield.
He said that the person would have to go willingly to receive and get assistance.
“Police and human services are aware of the homeless at the Dinky. They are providing assistance to those who want it. There are also some residents who have been volunteering their help,” Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert said. “Being homeless is not against the law.”
She said Princeton’s policy is to offer people help and support including connecting people to local shelters if they are interested.
“At our office, we offer the welfare program, it’s the state general assistance program. With individuals who come to our office that are homeless, we try to connect them and see if the qualify for the program,” said Melissa Urias, director of Princeton’s municipal department of Human Services. “If they don’t, we try to connect them with other resources in the area or Trenton and Mercer County that they would qualify for.”
The general assistance program assists single adults over the age of 18 with no dependents, and childless couples by providing financial and emergency assistance to eligible Princeton residents who have no income or employment, according to Princeton’s Department of Human Services.
The department works closely with the Princeton Police Department and has been in communication with Princeton University’s Public Safety.
“The winter is typically the time that we do see an increase in service requests with homeless individuals and I believe it is typically because of the weather,” Urias said.
One Princeton resident, whose spouse rides the Dinky, said that her husband started seeing the homeless about a month ago when he started taking the Dinky. Since informing police, he has not seen seen any homeless during his daily commutes.
A resource available for the homeless is the Rescue Mission of Trenton, which provides an emergency shelter serving single men and women, according to officials.
“The shelter at the Rescue Mission of Trenton will take any homeless adult singles. We address the issue of adult single homeless. If someone is from the Princeton community they are more than welcome to use our shelter,” said Mary Abbott-Young, CEO of the mission. “We have both an overnight shelter and a day shelter. It is open 24/7 and 365 days-a-year.”
She said the numbers do increase for the shelters when winter approaches and throughout the season, but also the shelter does also see spikes when the weather temperature is hot.