Sad But True

 

Homeless people are looked at as eyesores in communities, especially to township officials. 

The previous mayor of Lakewood, Robert Singer, once said that tent cities are "illegal and can pose safety, sanitary and environmental issues", also saying they should move to "proper accommodations". 

That's funny considering there is not one homeless shelter in Ocean County, and rotating the homeless in and out of motels is not exactly my idea of "proper accommodations".

It's not until the homeless are given chances they truly believe are worth taking that anything is going to change. Would you want to be put through the system just to be spat back out where you started? Why bother packing up your things?

I've been to public meetings and have listened to horror stories. One homeless woman who has children was put up in a motel, but it took over a week for the system to get her any food stamps. If it wasn't for the kindness of activists and food donors, her family would have been starving. It seems to me that wrap-around services, don't really wrap around much at all.

It may not be the best way to live, I understand that. There are alcoholics, and probably people with drug problems. I understand that, too. But I am going to continue to support the residents of tent city because what they stand for is so much more important than the notion that what they are doing is illegal. 

Permanence.

Back To Basics

Being that this is the first post of this blog, I would like to give a brief background of the tent city I am documenting in Lakewood, NJ.

Minister Steve Brigham, Outreach Ministry Church, started out helping homeless people in Toms River before turning his attention to the notion that if such calamity exists in Toms River, Lakewood too, must have homeless people. By setting people up with the basic necessities of life such as a tent and propane stove, Brigham was the catalyst for better living conditions for those without a place to call their own.

The tent city I am documenting is commonly referred to as the "KP site" based on its proximity to the Kennedy projects apartment complex across the street off Chambers Bridge Road and Clover. Homeless people have been living in the woods in Lakewood for over ten years, but the KP site is just a few years old. They have resorted to such primitive living conditions based on the fact that there are no homeless shelters in Ocean County.

The KP site has become quite extraordinary in the way it operates. The camp has (to name a few):

• a makeshift bathroom complete with a sealed toilet
• the ability to provide hot showers for its residents by running groundwater through a water heater.
• washer and dryer
• fresh veggies from the summer garden
• wild blueberries (due to this summer's dry condition, blueberries were scarce). 
• garbage disposal. The township has even included them in waste management, so yes, they too get their garbage picked up on garbage day.

Some residents have unified to perform tasks that make the camp run like a small commune, whether that includes chopping wood or helping plant a garden. Minister Steve offers rides to anyone who may need to get around, or the bus is easily available.

The township of Lakewood has continuously threatened to shut the camp down numerous times, sparked by a few incidents involving propane tanks. It is a mystery as to if and when anything will come into fruition. It seems to me that it is a burden not having a homeless shelter in Ocean County, and just rotating the homeless in and out of motels just to end up where they started is a shoddy attempt at sequestering homelessness.

 Nina, a Polish resident, cooking feta

Glimpse of tepees, chopped wood.

So if you are driving into Lakewood via Chambers Bridge Road, once you hit Clover take a quick look to your left. You will get a peek at a world where the chronic homeless survive the best way they know how.