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Aug. 14-20
Homeless Report
The annual Point-in-Time (PIT) Reports of the homeless population have just been released eight months after the count took place in January. The PIT reports are a response to a requirement from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Nationally, the 2023 count showed an overall increase of 11.6% from 2022. This included a 10.6% increase of unaccompanied individuals and a 12.1% increase in families. A major factor in the rising number of homeless was the end of pandemic-based eviction moratoriums in 2022.
Percentages are tricky when dealing with small numbers, but it is still telling that Cape May County’s count of the homeless in 2023 was up 66% from its 2022 level. The increase from 119 in 2022 to 198 in 2023 is a significant one. One must consider, as well, that any error in the county total will be on the downside, that is, there are undoubtedly homeless individuals who avoided being counted in January.
Of the county homeless, 19% were children under the age of 18. The last time the homeless population in the county stood at numbers greater than it is in 2023 was in 2014, when the county showed 306 homeless following the financial troubles caused by the Great Recession of 2008.
The homeless count comes as a large number of county homeless encamped in wooded areas of Rio Grande are facing possible eviction due to a new municipal ordinance banning sleeping in temporary structures, like the encampment tents.
Strange Weather
Strange weather events are becoming commonplace. A freakish storm threatens California, the hottest month globally in recorded history just ended in July, a new heat dome settles over the Midwest, and droughts, storms, record rain events, and massive wildfires are now a common part of the daily news report.
For some scientists, the worry is that climate change is happening faster than the climate models had predicted. Many of them urge a more aggressive move away from fossil fuels for electricity generation, transportation, and even home heating and appliances.
For others, efforts to combat climate change are already happening too fast and producing unintended consequences that cannot be ignored. In Cape May County, that translates into resistance to state and federal projects that would line the New Jersey coast with wind turbines as a means to providing a renewable energy source.
Legal battles are multiplying. Locally, the county, select municipalities, and private nonprofits are all challenging the offshore wind initiative in the courts.
The surprise this week were questions about the economic impact of the offshore wind initiative on electricity ratepayers. The questions weren’t new, but those asking them were. With a statement of concern made public by New Jersey Senate President Nicholas Scutari and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, the stage is set for Democratic leaders to question Gov. Phil Murphy’s all out push for a transformation of the state’s energy profile.
College Closings
Since 2016, 91 private colleges have closed their doors or merged with another school. In many cases, students had no advanced knowledge of the impending event. Private schools are not alone with this dilemma. Public institutions face the same challenges, but with sources of public funding that are sometimes less quick to respond to enrollment changes.
A larger context for the crisis many institutions are facing is growing doubt about the value of a degree when weighed against the cost.
For a number of schools, the pandemic was the final straw. Evidence does not suggest that the pandemic caused the crisis of enrollments, but rather the pandemic became the impediment that already weak institutions just could not surmount.
Another factor in the challenges facing higher education institutions is what many now term “the cliff,” the impending decline in the number of high school graduates. Demographics tell the tale and in 2025, the nation will be graduating the smallest high school classes by population in recent decades.
Locally, the pandemic was not kind to Atlantic Cape Community College, but enrollments had been consistently declining for years before Covid produced its first case. As of 2022, enrollments at Atlantic Cape from students whose home is in Cape May County are significantly lower than they were when the branch campus opened in 2005.
Across the nation, traditional age students are declining in high school graduating classes. Enrollments are already stretched. Room to raise tuition is severely constrained by market forces. The marketplace increasingly expresses doubts about the benefits of college. All this may suggest the need for a change in public policy to one that more directly links public funding for higher education to student outcomes. It is a strategy being embraced in a number of different ways in several states.
Happenings
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) updated its hurricane season predictions just as we enter the months when most major storms develop. NOAA now sees a higher-than-average number of named storms, hurricanes, and major hurricanes in 2023.
Murphy signed legislation that establishes a $100 million Boardwalk Preservation Fund for the repair and preservation of boardwalks in shore communities across the state.
Staff at Morey’s Piers were praised for their response to a recent power outage that had stranded patrons on pier rides. Meanwhile, in Upper Township, Beach Patrol members were celebrated for a rescue during a period of dangerous rip currents.
After a July in which the fatalities among sea mammals off our coast slowed, August brought three whale strandings along the New York and New Jersey shoreline.
Ocean City honored Council member Bobby Barr, as he left the council to accept an appointment to the Board of County Commissioners. The council also appointed a new member to fill Barr’s seat.
Avalon reintroduced a solid waste and recycling ordinance, while also adopting new water and sewer rates.
Stone Harbor debates how to handle a new beach feasibility report, as some on council sour on the firm the borough hired to produce the report.
The land being cleared that once housed the Shamrock Beef and Ale will be repurposed as multifamily-living units.
The New Jersey attorney general filed with the courts to have Pete Byron removed from office. Byron pleaded guilty to federal tax fraud counts and has recently been reindicted by the state on health care benefits fraud.
Cape May is considering joining other municipalities that have passed local regulations governing light pollution.
Harvard’s Nieman Lab reports a new, two-minute quiz that measures an individual’s susceptibility to misinformation. MIST (Misinformation Susceptibility Test) can be taken by anyone here.
Cape May MAC programing adds $196 million to the local tourist economy, according to a new economic impact analysis.
The county is looking to privatization of the Crest Haven Nursing Home. County officials say the bottom line is a factor, but that the rise in the number of facilities in the county willing to accept Medicaid patients led to a lower need for a county-operated facility.
Spout Off of the Week
North Wildwood – I am owner of a second home in CMC. I made a choice to live here part-time, so I had to accept certain things. For example, I won’t get my taxes or homeowners pro-rated because I’m a part timer, I will pay for utilities when I’m not using the house, and I won’t get to vote in local elections. These were all known to me when I bought the place. Second homeowners should not get a vote in local elections as it would disproportionately dilute the voices of those living in the community year round. These are the voters who should be driving the local political landscape, not me.
Read more spouts at spoutoff.capemaycountyherald.com.
