CREST HAVEN – “Figures don’t lie,” said Freeholder Director Gerald Thornton at the April 24 freeholder meeting.
He cited numbers of homeless individuals after he met with representatives from Wildwood (mayor and commissioners), and Middle (chief of police and administrator), and Lower (police captain) townships.
With numbers collected by Donna Groome, who oversees the county Department of Human Services, Thornton cited 2018 tallies by ZIP code which showed Wildwood (08260) as having 137 placements from the Homeless Hotline; Middle Township (with four ZIP codes) having 132, and Lower Township (with two ZIP codes) having 114.
Code Blue placements this year included: Wildwood, 56, Middle, 54, and Lower, 55.
Thornton said that, while the Wildwoods share the same ZIP code, “We all know Wildwood Crest, North Wildwood, and West Wildwood don’t have that many, the majority is coming from Wildwood.”
At a previous meeting, Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano denied the city had any homeless, a fact underscored by Police Chief Robert Regalbuto.
Troiano said his city would take care of its own residents in need.
“We have done everything as a county. We really have tried to help the homeless,” said Thornton.
“The bottom line, legally, it is a municipal problem,” he added.
He added that the county had been “kind stepping in with motels” sheltering the homeless.
“For Code Blue, the only thing we are required to do is announce it and send it to all municipalities. They have to create the warming centers. It is not a county responsibility. All these years we have been nice,” Thornton said.
Further, he said that, should the state social services deem that homeless money may not be used by the county, “The burden will be back on the municipalities.”
Thornton lauded Middle and Lower townships as being responsive to do what was in their power to aid the homeless.
Those municipalities that “want a shelter can get together if they want to build a shelter,” said Thornton.
“For the county to accept the responsibility for shelter when it’s a municipal responsibility, we would be taking on a great deal of responsibility,” he continued.
Citing the vacant former Chapin House on Route 47 in Rio Grande, which indicated could possibly be a shelter, Thornton again stated that residents would “not want it (a homeless shelter) in my backyard. That’s all there is to it. We were only talking, nothing more than talking (previously) and the room was filled (with Wildwood residents).”
He said that Middle Township bears “most of the burden with motel placements. Everybody says to dump them offshore, send them to Rio Grande, that’s where they should be. That’s not fair to Middle Township.”
Groome stated that, during the most recent Point in Time Survey, the third week in January, there were 119 overall considered homeless, which included those who were in shelters. They included men, women, and children.
There were 13 ranked “chronically homeless” who have been without a home three times in a year.
There were six persons “unsheltered on that evening,” said Groome.
They could have been sleeping on a bench or in woods throughout the county, she said.
She said it was impossible to get those numbers by a municipality.
Thornton said that Middle Township is working on a project to take some abandoned houses and refurbish them so that homeless could have somewhere to stay indoors.
North Cape May – Thank you to the Supreme Court for doing the right thing.
