RIO GRANDE – Timothy McCart is homeless in Cape May County. The 55-year-old construction worker, who grew up in Erma, has been wheelchair-bound for nine months. His broken leg was reconnected with a titanium plate and screws; walking is almost impossible for him. His broken arm is also on the mend.
McCart lives “out in the woods” surviving in a tent behind a trailer park in this urbanized hub of Middle Township. Many passersby have likely seen him, although many consider him and others like him invisible souls who merely exist somewhere somehow.
Not a military veteran, McCart came into the Herald lobby Jan. 22. The afternoon temperature was dropping. “I’m dying out there,” he said. “I called the Homeless Hotline, but I’m still cold,” he said, bundled in a couple of sweaters with gloved hands.
He said the owner of a nearby motel where he had stayed briefly advised him to complain about his situation to the newspaper.
“There’s a shelter in Atlantic County, but how am I going to get up there?” he asked rhetorically.
Homeless people get shelter when there is a Code Blue Alert; the county must shelter everybody regardless of their situation if the temperature is 32 degrees with precipitation and, if weather is clear and the temperature drops to 25 degrees or lower.
The program is under the auspices of the state Office of Emergency Management and managed by the county Board of Social Services.
Code Blue Alerts
According to Freeholder Kristine Gabor, who oversees county Health and Human Services, the Code Blue Alert “Guideline comes from the state and all other counties follow it. We are joining with them and following the same rule from this point forward,” she said.
“I believe part of the contention is the guidelines have changed and less people are being given vouchers for shelter due to the cold when they call the homeless hotline,” Gabor stated. “My perception is that some are upset that more people are left without shelter due to the change in guidelines.” She added that discussions are ongoing with the county Office of Emergency Management to establish solutions for emergency shelter. That was to be a topic of discussion at the next Board of Social Services meeting, she said.
McCart noted in the summer, living is not as awful. But, when temperatures are just above freezing, McCart said, “I’ve stayed in my tent. I froze. I wore double socks, and my socks were wet. My feet were freezing. It’s tough for me to get around in my wheelchair in the snow. Somebody needs to do something quick so something changes. I need to be in the warmth. I need to get inside. Suppose it drops below freezing at 2 in the morning, my body can’t take it anymore.”
McCart moves from place to place as well as he can. Few businesses want him to stay around too long. They tell him to move along, and he goes, reluctantly, slowly.
Some Abuse the System
While he admits he needs help quickly, he knows there are some who believe people like him are “abusing the system.” “We’re not, we just need a place to stay, in a garage or someplace,” he said.
He claimed Social Services won’t help him, although they did assist him “last year.” When he received a disability check, he said a large amount had been deducted, money he could well have used.
“Now I’m stuck. I have no friends, no family, no nothing. My feet are freezing,” he said. “I have nowhere to go, no warm spot. I can’t carry around my stuff, it’s too much weight. I’ll freeze to death. They’ll pull my dead body out of the woods,” he continued.
“I’ve got nowhere to go. I ride all over town. No one really cares. Somebody’s got to listen. The homeless, they’re stuck,” McCart added.
“This ain’t no picnic for me. I have to figure what to do today before it goes to sub-zero,” he said. The temperature at the time was about 33 degrees.
While he spoke of his own need, he was quick to note how many others are in similar straits. “There are people out there like me suffering,” he said.
“Somebody is going to die. It’s a matter of life and death,” he said.
Briefly hospitalized, McCart recalled those few nights in a clean bed and a warm place, albeit connected to IV tubes and with other patients moaning and shouting.
“I don’t do drugs,” he said.
When Percocet was prescribed after his hospital stay, he said, “I don’t want that. I take Advil and aspirin for the pain.”
(ED. NOTE: The Cape May County Homeless Hotline is 886-1325 or 1-800-886-6200.)
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