Advocates Seek Solutions to End Homelessness, Discuss Tent City Litigation

TOMS RIVER – As Ocean County finds itself in the middle of a heated lawsuit over whether the government should provide immediate housing for those living in local forests, homeless advocates are calling for a meeting with the county, and for solutions to be debated.

“These people have no one to be a voice for them at all,” said Jeffrey Wild, an attorney with the law firm Lowenstein-Sandler, who spoke at "A Forum to End Homelessness" on March 28, at the .

Wild has been providing pro bono representation for the homeless plaintiffs throughout the litigation involving Lakewood Township, which involves the township’s attempts to remove the homeless who have been sleeping in the town’s parks, or Tent City.

“This is a very important movement in the movement of homelessness,” Wild said. “We are in the middle of the case, and asking to sit down with the county and give them concrete ideas, but the county is not willing to sit down with the coalition. Instead, today they filed a motion to dismiss the claims of the homeless – to throw out a claim that everyone should be given a place to go,” Wild said.

Ocean County would not comment on the pending litigation, said Donna Flynn, director of the county public information division.

A hearing on the motion of dismissal is scheduled for Friday, April 29, at 10 a.m., in Toms River.

“What the homeless really need is a purpose and hope,” said Steve Brigam, who has spent three winters in the camp with the homeless. “Living out in the woods, I see it in another perspective: Looking from the inside looking out, the homeless seemed scary to me. But when the homeless look out at society, they’re the ones who are scared,” he said.

Brigam said the main solution to solve homelessness is affordable housing. “It doesn’t take a whole lot to live. We need to create housing that’s affordable. It’s not rocket science.”

Among the speakers at the forum were Richard Brown, director of Monarch Housing, who said it would save the county money if more dollars were spent on building permanent, affordable homes. “We are spending more money for people to live in the woods and live in their cars than it would cost to put them in permanent housing with services,” Brown said.

Ocean County released a statement saying it spends $20 million a year on the homeless for hotel rooms and other shelter.

In 2010, the Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders appropriated $19 million to the Ocean County Board of Social Services to assist in providing services to the needy in the county, said Donna Flynn, Ocean County public information director. In the proposed 2011 budget, that appropriation will increase to about $20 million.

Flynn said Ocean County provides housing assistance to about 2,000 persons a night through a variety of programs and services including emergency assistance, temporary shelter, transitional housing, temporary rental assistance, rental subsidies, assistance with back rent, back mortgage, and utilities in order to prevent eviction.

Housing First, which is an alternative to housing homeless in shelters and has been adopted in New York City, bypasses the normal steps of moving a homeless person from the street to a shelter, then to transitional housing and eventually a permanent home.

John Monahan, a Housing First advocate, said the program works because the organization providing the housing will connect with the individual seeking housing on a more personal level, creating an environment that the person will feel comfortable in. “If I don’t know you, why am I going to trust myself to you? Over time, it’s possible to have that trust built, and based on that trust, the service provider can enter treatment, such as counseling,” he said.

Ocean County has yet to adopt Housing First.

Other models presented during the forum were:

• County Homeless Trust Fund Model: A fund that would charge $3 to go toward the county’s 10-year plan to end homeless.
• InfoLine: A homeless hotline, which is created through the county’s Board of Social Services.
• Destiny’s Bridge:  A holistic community made of up a series of small homes.
• The Lodge: A facility that can hold a maximum of 50 people and get them out of the cold.