Homeless Wheelchair-bound Man’s Death Raises Consciousness on Plight of Others

RIO GRANDE – Timothy McCart had many problems. Health problems left him wheelchair-bound. At the March 10 freeholders meeting, McCart spoke of the medical assistance he needed. Lisa Brocco-Collia, a member of the county Homeless Task Force, told freeholders that McCart could be out of the wheelchair with proper medical treatment.
He told Brocco-Collia he could control his drinking, but if so he saw little reason to exercise that control on a number of occasions. He was quoted in a Herald story that he did not use illegal drugs.
Perhaps McCart’s biggest problem was that he was homeless. His presence at the freeholder meeting was as a member of a group of homeless and their advocates seeking greater involvement and commitment from the county to the problems of the homeless.
The next night, March 11, McCart was out on the streets with no shelter for the night. He was hit by a car while attempting to cross Rio Grande Boulevard. Airlifted to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center, Atlantic City for treatment, McCart died 48 hours after the freeholder meeting.
Ironically, word reached Brocco-Collia as she attended a training session on the use of Narcan, a drug that combats opiate overdoses. While most of those attending the training session were anxious family members of individuals addicted to opiates, the homeless were represented as well. Like McCart, many of the homeless have multiple problems and addiction can be one of them.
McCart’s attendance at the March 10 Freeholder meeting was not the first time he was publicly associated with the homeless problem. In February, his photograph, crossing that same highway in the snow, was the lead-in for a Herald story on a freeholder meeting in which advocates for the homeless pushed for more help.
By the March meeting, Freeholder Kristine Gabor, who oversees county Health and Human Services, welcomed the dialogue. A contingent of staff from Social Services attended the meeting. Sara Maloney, acting deputy director of the department, said that she and her staff came to the meeting to “let people know we are there and want to help.”
The homeless who went to the meeting were given the opportunity, after adjournment, to meet with the Social Services staff. According to Brocco-Collia and Jason Rempo, also a member of the homeless task force, McCart participated in those discussions and he said he was told that if he went to Social Services in the morning he would get a voucher for a place to stay.
Maloney cannot comment of the specifics of any case, but that no one from Social Services would make such a blanket statement.
“We would have urged him to come in and apply for assistance,” she said. Maloney went on to explain that the majority of funds available for such assistance come from the state and that “specific programs carry with them specific requirements.” Funding for assistance often entails a “need for documentation.”
Brocco-Collia had told freeholders that she had paid for two rooms for the night at a motel with her own money, something she does often, and she gave one of those keys to McCart.
The next morning, as directed, McCart showed up at Social Services. Brocco-Collia was to be on the speakerphone in case McCart did not understand questions put to him. This practice, one normally allowed for an advocate who understands she can only speak under specific circumstances, was an initial source of dispute. It was resolved and Brocco-Collia remained on the line.
McCart was not given the voucher he expected, based on his understanding of the discussions the prior night. Maloney points out that no promises could possibly have been made to him at the freeholder meeting since program specifics would need to be analyzed with respect to his case.
Whether or not McCart misunderstood an invitation to come in and discuss assistance as an offer of a voucher is something that will never be known for certain.
What is known is that McCart, at the Social Services meeting the next morning, was told to go and collect receipts from all the places he has stayed for as far back as he could go. He would potentially get a voucher when he returned with those receipts. The night of that e day, with no voucher for a room, McCart was hit by the car crossing Route 47 and sustained injuries that proved fatal.
Many things converged on that moment when the car hit McCart.
Brocco-Collia was told by other homeless individuals that McCart had been drinking and that he “put his head down and wheeled as fast as he could across the busy street.” The fact that the accident occurred immediately following a public plea for greater assistance to the homeless has painted a more visible picture of the problem.
Figures from the Homeless Point-In-Time Survey done in 2014, produce estimates that place the number of homeless in the county at a little over 300. These are not all individuals. At least 36 families with children were identified.
In a county with pockets of deep poverty and serious problems of drug abuse, the homeless represent one of many demands on social service resources.
Advocates for the homeless said at the freeholders meeting the “system is broken.”
Freehold Director Gerald Thornton disagreed but admitted that the “system is challenged.”
Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano showed zero tolerance for the homeless in Wildwood living in substandard housing. Troiano directs police to move them out of the city. Troiano talked of the many problems of poverty Wildwood must deal with and of the total lack of jobs in the off-season. “Does this practice make us look like the bad guys?” he asked.
Perhaps the death of McCart, a death Maloney called “tragic,” can move the dialogue close to finding better response to a problem that does not appear to be going away any time soon.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.