COURT HOUSE – According to the January 2021 Point in Time Survey of the Homeless, Cape May County has 113 identified homeless men, women, and children. The survey is taken on a single day across the state in the last 10 days of January each year since 2014.
New Jersey law requires each county’s Office of Emergency Management to broadcast a Code Blue alert when the temperature drops below 32 degrees. The law was altered, in 2020, so Code Blue alerts no longer depend on the presence of precipitation.
Code Blue in Cape May County
In Cape May County, municipalities are responsible for providing a warming center for Code Blue periods. These centers can vary from a police department lobby to an arrangement with a local church or social organization.
Through 2018, the county issued hotel/motel vouchers during Code Blue periods. As of Jan. 1, 2019, the county changed the procedure, no longer giving vouchers to homeless individuals. Only families with children were then eligible for a motel voucher. There were 14 hotels and motels, most of them in Rio Grande, that participated in the process.
When responsibility devolved to the municipalities, uniformity was no longer the rule. In Cape May, the police department’s lobby, in City Hall, became the warming center. In Lower and Middle townships, arrangements were made with local churches to provide shelters with cots. In Avalon and Stone Harbor, where homelessness is not an issue, the Avalon Senior Center was designated as a warming center and was available to Seven Mile Island residents who may have lost power, and thus heat.
In 2020, the pandemic forced a return to county vouchers to avoid congregate settings where Covid might spread.
With winter approaching and the responsibility once more placed on municipalities, arrangements for warming centers are underway. Middle Township Committee Oct. 18 approved a memorandum of understanding with the Cape Community Church/Bible Fellowship Church for a return to the use of the church hall as a warming center during Code Blue events.
In 2020, prior to Covid, county Fare Free Transportation provided rides to the church from The Branches, in Rio Grande. The Branches provided an evening and morning meal.
In November 2019, Lower Township made arrangements with the Seashore Community Church of the Nazarene, in Erma, shifting from using the municipality’s recreation facilities.
In the immediate pre-pandemic year, in 2019, the county provided $65,000 to offset costs of various warming center arrangements in five municipalities.
County Homeless
Even though the official numbers for homelessness in the county come from the annual Point in Time Report, advocates argue that the report is most likely an undercount, noting counting the homeless is difficult.
Several nonprofit organizations play important roles in counting the homeless, which is coordinated by Monarch Housing Associates, a nonprofit, whose mission is to expand the supply of affordable, permanent, supportive housing.
A look at Cape May County’s annual reported numbers shows a relatively consistent picture. In 2017, the Point in Time Report listed 119 homeless people in the county compared to 113 in 2021.
NJ 211, another nonprofit organization, has been designated as the state’s homeless hotline. NJ 211 is part of a national system that seeks to connect people in need with local resources that may be able to help them. Providing a hotline for those seeking shelter during Code Blue events is one of its many tasks.
There are critics of the county’s handling of Code Blue requirements. Just months before Covid’s appearance changed everything, Cape Hope, a local nonprofit that seeks to end homelessness, produced a pamphlet that called the county’s approach to Code Blue “flawed.”
Others have made the case that the county should create a homeless shelter, a move the county has opposed for years. The lack of affordable housing has also been a focus of criticism.
The county has argued that it provides all the necessary services for the homeless during Code Blue alerts.
How Many Alerts Are There?
In 2019, the New Jersey Association of Counties reported on the 2018/2019 winter. In that report, Cape May County was listed as having 35 Code Blue alerts declared. There were 348 individuals requiring shelter from the extreme cold over the period. The cost listed was $80,245.
The same report then provided the information for the 2019/2020 winter, the first full winter under the new arrangement that ended vouchers for individuals.
The number of alerts rose to 55, but the individuals housed dropped to 220. Costs rose, according to the report, to $105,550. No other county listed in the report saw a decline in the cumulative number of individuals needing shelter that winter.
After the pandemic led the county to reinstate its voucher process in the 2020/2021 winter, municipalities, once again, will provide for the homeless during Code Blue periods.
Not much time remains before those centers will be put to use. Last winter, the first Code Blue alert was declared in mid-November 2020, and the last was April 2 of this year.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.
