Republican candidate for governor Jack Ciattarrelli says he would fund homeless shelters in every county if elected. HIs plan, though, may face funding issues and community opposition.
More than 13,700 people who were without a place to live were identified on Jan. 28 in New Jersey’s Point-in-Time Count, an annual national one-night survey. Homelessness has increased 57% in New Jersey over the past three years, according to the New Jersey Coalition to End Homelessness.
“In New Jersey, one of the richest states in the entire world, we need to make sure that 94-year-old men are not sleeping in their cars,” Connie Mercer, executive director of the coalition, said in an interview. “We need to make sure that pregnant women have a safe place to be. We need to make sure that all of our citizens have a safe refuge.’
The average occupancy rate in New Jersey shelters is 94% to 128%, according to the state Office of Homelessness Prevention.
Not town by town
Ciattarelli, in a debate with his Democratic challenger Mikie Sherrill at Rider University in Lawrenceville on Sept. 21, said he would boost services for the unhoused.
“We’ll put a plan in place [that] the state will fund for there to be a community mental health center in every one of our 21 counties, and a homeless shelter,” said Ciattarelli, a former assemblyman and county commissioner who is making his third bid for governor in the general election on Nov. 4. “We need that here and you can’t expect us to address that all 564 towns at a time.”
President Donald Trump, who has endorsed Ciattarelli, on July 24 signed an executive order to enforce involuntary institutional commitment for people with mental illness to “restore public order.” The nationwide policy also directed the end of federal funding for harm reduction and safe consumption programs that “fail to achieve adequate outcomes.”
Referring to the national count of 274,224 homeless people on a single January night, the White House said: “The overwhelming majority of these individuals are addicted to drugs, have a mental health condition or both.”
In the Garden State, nonprofit groups, religious organizations and municipalities, facing increasingly tight budgets, are looking to provide these services in a more regional way, according to John Donnadio, executive director of New Jersey Association of Counties, a Trenton-based lobbying and research group. He called helping the homeless a top legislative priority.
“These nonprofit organizations are struggling to fund their operations, to pay staff,” Donnadio said. “Whether it’s run at the county level, or the county contracts with a nonprofit organization to run the program – as long as those services are provided, it doesn’t matter to us.”
Wanted: 495,000 homes
While increased funding of shelters would help to remedy the issue, the homelessness crisis is growing in part due to a lack of affordable housing, Mercer said.
The state is short 205,000 affordable units for people with extremely low incomes, according to Raisa Rubin-Stankiewicz, a policy associate for the New Jersey Coalition to End Homelessness. New Jersey needs 290,000 homes that are affordable to people who make less than half the area median income, according to the coalition..
Ciattarelli’s Democratic opponent for governor, Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, in 2023 reintroduced the Homeless Children and Youth Act, designed to channel services to families who may be living in temporary quarters, such as motels, and as a result don’t fit the federal government’s definition of unhoused. The legislation, introduced again this year in the Senate, hasn’t moved from committee.
Though Sherrill’s campaign for governor hasn’t pitched a plan for shelters, she says she would increase affordable-housing construction. The greater supply, she says, would help decrease rental costs.
Burlington and Ocean
Burlington County is building its first emergency shelter, with 60 beds, in Westampton. The county website describes it as “a temporary facility that assists those experiencing emergent housing needs to transition into permanent housing.” The construction, expected to be complete in summer or fall 2026, is being funded through grants and other sources. State and local government grants are contributing to the roughly $20 million cost.
Some residents fought the development at commissioners’ meetings, worrying that it will invite more homelessness, decrease property values and promote an unsafe environment. In Ocean County, which lacks a full-time shelter, Christ Episcopal Church in Toms River dropped a proposed 17-bed building after residents objected and the zoning board of adjustment rejected a variance application in June.
“It’s a magnet,” Edward Bezdecki, an attorney who represented an opponent, said in an interview. “One of the witnesses that I presented – who happened to be a psychiatric nurse – testified that her home was being impacted by homeless people urinating and defecating in her back yard.”
He expressed support for Ciattarelli’s plan if there were strong fiscal oversight of shelter operations.
Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat whose second term is ending in January, has supported homelessness relief, budget documents show. He dedicated more than $30 million to the Bringing Veterans Home Initiative and $95 million to the Healthy Homes Partnership to produce low-rent housing for Medicaid recipients. In April, the administration made $10 million available to 43 organizations that help families to find housing and assist with security deposits and moving costs.
Still, such funding isn’t guaranteed each year, as it must be considered by the legislature and governor, and advocates say more challenges are ahead.
“Bravo for the issue of lack of shelter coming up in a debate,” Mercer said. “It’s going to be a key issue in the coming years because of the impending crisis with homelessness that’s absolutely going to happen.”
