About 60 people took part in a Zoom discussion on affordable housing and on homelessness Feb. 5, outlining the problems on the state and Cape May County levels and trying to come up with possible solutions.

The meeting was sponsored by the Cape May County Democratic Committee and included local speakers as well as the director of the Vineland Housing Authority and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney, who is running for governor and who spoke about legislation he promoted to help create affordable housing in New Jersey.

Moderator Harvey Roach, the chair of the Leadership Committee, said the discussion would key on low- and moderate-income housing. He defined low income as a household earning about $47,000 a year, and moderate income as a household with an annual income of about $76,000.

Roach said that according to a survey of the 16 municipalities in Cape May County, there were at least 741 affordable housing units countywide, although a handful of towns did not respond to the request for information. The bottom line, he said, is, “We need more affordable housing units.”

“I hear this in every discussion: ‘My kids can’t afford to buy a house here,’” he said.

Roach said various groups of residents are finding housing in the county unaffordable, including veterans, seniors and many people who make up the workforce.

He said the state Supreme Court’s Mount Laurel decision in 1975 was an attempt to require affordable housing in each community and led to the establishment of the Council on Affordable Housing. The council has been ineffective in many cases, he said, adding that there is legislation currently underway that will attempt to replace it.

Roach said state Sen. Troy Singleton (D-7th) suggested there is a need for 200,000 new affordable units across the state. A downturn in the economy and the Covid pandemic exacerbated the problem and caused more strain on existing infrastructure.

He went on to tie the problem of homelessness into the discussion of affordable housing, saying that while other places, such as Austin, Texas, have attempted to address the problem of homelessness by creating a community of tiny houses and connecting the residents with a network of support services, Cape May County does not have even a temporary shelter for its homeless population.

Sweeney said there have been “a lot of great programs for homeless people,” citing the Camden Housing Initiative, which provided temporary housing and wrap-around services to help the homeless reenter society. He said housing used to take 25% to 30% of a family’s gross income, but it is costing more these days. He said affordable housing should be both available and of quality.

“Affordable housing is not an ugly word,” he said. “People want good school systems, they want to live in good neighborhoods.”

Sweeney said there are currently 8,000 people on a waiting list for affordable housing, which he said needs to be created in each county.

Jacqueline Jones, who has been involved in affordable housing for over 40 years and is currently the executive director of the Vineland Housing Authority, as well as the housing authorities in Wildwood, Ocean City and Cape May, said that according to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, affordable housing means spending not more than 30% of gross income toward rent and utilities.

Jones outlined different types of housing programs, including Section 8, where residents pay 30% of their income toward the rent and HUD pays the rest. She also mentioned Section 8 Project-based Rental Assistance, in which vouchers are attached to the building rather than the person.

Public housing, she said, still exists, but stopped being developed in the 1980s. She also mentioned the tax credit properties program, which allows developers to essentially buy tax credits to build low- to moderate-income housing. She said this type of program is heavily monitored to ensure compliance with government regulations.

Yvonne Sullivan, the recently named executive director for Family Promise of Cape May County, said there is no affordable housing in Cape May County for young people. She said many who go away to college end up living elsewhere.

“It’s sad, very sad,” she said.

Sullivan said there are 13 affordable housing complexes in the county, but six are for seniors and one is for disabled individuals. The remaining six are for low- to moderate-income households. She said if someone happens to make some extra money, such as by working overtime, they could be told to leave, rather than be asked to pay more.

Family Promise, she said, helps people with children who become homeless. The adults are drug-screened and have to work. Normally, Family Promise provides a 90-day stay, but because of the cost of rentals the 90 days are being extended. According to Sullivan, to afford a two-bedroom rental in Cape May County a person needs to earn $35 per hour.

“That is two incomes plus one of them having a second job,” she said.

Sullivan said the housing shortage in the county is being compounded by landlords switching over to short-term rentals. She said Family Promise is looking for landlords to partner with who would provide temporary or permanent housing.

Tyler Keene took over as executive director of The Branches Outreach in October 2023 after having worked in social service programs for vulnerable people on the national level.

“I had no idea this was going to be the hardest job I ever had,” he said. “This is the most difficult social services network I’ve ever experienced.”

The Branches deals with a lot of chronically homeless people, but Keene is now seeing more and more first-time homeless. He referred to other advocate agencies, such as Cape Hope, which like The Branches is seeing more people experiencing homelessness for the first time. He said these people can become chronically homeless.

Keene said there is a misconception among some people that The Branches is attracting people from outside the county and even outside the state. He said according to their records, over 82% of those they serve come from within a 10-mile radius, and over 85% are Cape May County residents. “Eighty percent of them are your everyday neighbors who fell on hard times,” he said. “Only 20% are chronically homeless.”

He said he recently met someone who worked for 20 years but fell on hard times due to health problems. He said this person told him he used to be the same kind of person who thought the homeless were responsible for their own condition. He also mentioned a couple in their 90s who became homeless for the first time.

Keene said Middle Township has adopted what he called the Boise, Idaho, model for dealing with the homeless. He said under that model, if the municipality offers reasonable housing to a homeless person and they refuse, they can be arrested.

He said Middle Township has partnered with Volunteers of America, which found that 90% of the time homeless individuals in Cape May County turn down housing offered in places such as Camden or Atlantic City.

Keene said it is illegal to sleep outside in Cape May County, but the county claims it does not consider being homeless illegal. Yet, The Branches has one client who is chronically homeless, intellectually challenged and living in a dumpster. This individual was provided a voucher almost two years ago for housing and can’t find a place to live.

“We have people with no housing in Cape May County, and there is no path for progression,” he said.

Contact the author, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 128.