Homelessness Increases in Ocean County, Family Promise Provides Assistance

By EMMA DESIDERIO

Elizabeth Golla of Ocean County, NJ typically deals with people who have lost their homes due to a variety of issues.

She works at Family Promise of Southern Ocean County, an organization that provides temporary shelter and resources to families who are at risk of or currently experiencing homelessness. But when Covid-19 hit, Golla saw a change in the homeless population.

“When COVID hit, there was actually a decrease right away in homelessness. When we looked at trends in Ocean County and in New Jersey as a whole, it looked like people began staying with family members,” Golla explained. “But over the course of 2020, and now in 2021, evictions are starting to happen, so we’re starting to see an increase.”

The public health crisis of COVID-19 is not the only crisis in 2021.  With the country facing record unemployment numbers, the housing crisis has only been worsened with the pandemic. 

Families all over the U.S. are struggling more than ever, including here in New Jersey. As the state’s homeless population continues to increase, it’s important to look at what’s happening in local neighborhoods. 

In January 2020, on one night in Ocean County, a total of 245 households were experiencing homelessness, according to the 2020 Point in Time count, an annual report of the homeless population, conducted by New Jersey’s Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency.

Homelessness is an issue that has been plaguing more and more families in Ocean County each year. According to the 2020 Point-in-Time count, conducted before the pandemic, there was an increase of 15 percent in the number of households experiencing homelessness compared to 2019. Though these numbers are almost certainly skyrocketing due to COVID-19, data collection has been delayed for these annual studies, according to USA Today. The undercount of the needy and lack of data is making it difficult for lawmakers to understand the need for support in at-risk communities.

Families are now facing new struggles, such as job losses, reduced hours, health issues, and lack of resources. But they aren’t alone.

Family Promise Helps Struggling Households

At Family Promise of Southern Ocean County, families come to the Day Center in between work/school and staying overnight at their host site. There, they can shower, search for jobs and housing, do laundry, and participate in various programs.

Golla, executive director of Family Promise, explains what the organization does.

Family Promise typically partners with local churches who rotate temporarily hosting families. Volunteers cook meals and provide transportation if needed. However, due to COVID-19, Family Promise struggled to continue helping families with the new restrictions of social distancing, essential business closures, and required PPE. 

“We had no resources at first. Churches were closed, volunteers weren’t allowed, and we actually lost a few people to COVID,” Golla said. “It was really difficult. Now we’re trying to re-engage everyone, but at first it was just me, a few staff members, and our families. We literally had to glove up, mask up, and do everything we could ourselves.”

More Families At Risk Than Ever Before

Golla explains that while the homeless population is slowly increasing, the number of families at risk of becoming homeless has skyrocketed throughout the pandemic. While the organization used to focus solely on families who were unsheltered, they have since shifted their goals towards helping prevent homelessness from occurring.

“It’s more the number of people at risk that has drastically increased. Since October, we have 97 families [in the prevention program], which is over 400 people.”

Family Promise is currently housing people in motels that they are paying for. They are using the cheapest they can find, but Golla says it is still “insanely expensive.” While the organization did receive a grant through the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund, most of their funding comes from donations.

Golla says that the biggest issue people are struggling with is mental health. “Anxiety and fear are big contributors,” she said.

“It’s not so much job loss, but job reduction. Especially for teachers and restaurant workers. Because previously, they would pick up extra shifts and rely on that to support their family, but now there are no extra shifts. Plus, many of these people have had to quarantine due to the nature of their jobs, and you don’t get paid to quarantine.”

According to the United Nations, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in people experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well as an increase in alcohol consumption and drug use as coping mechanisms.

“With people working reduced hours, their anxiety is increasing about money. Everyone is feeding into this anxiety. Now alcohol use and drug use is going up because there isn’t mental health help available to them, and they are finding other ways to cope,” said Golla.

Virtual Schooling Presents New Challenges for Families

Another issue homeless and at-risk families are facing is online schooling. “It’s extremely difficult, because every school district is doing something different. If the kids are hybrid, parents can potentially go to work on in-person school days, but on virtual days they aren’t able to.  Sometimes there’s short notice about when they will be virtual, because of COVID outbreaks,” Golla explained.

“Realistically, some people can’t work at all during this situation, with their kids being virtual. We are brainstorming with a lot of parents on how they can make it work, by working from home if possible or finding a daycare we can assist with.”

Golla said parents aren’t the only ones feeling the stress of the pandemic. “The kids’ mental health is declining too, because they’re feeding off of their parents’ stress. Plus, the kids have less resources, if they typically were getting their meals at school, or extra help from teachers.”

Overall, the,  numbers of people experiencing homelessness are expected to increase greatly in the next year. The eviction moratorium in New Jersey ends soon and many will be evicted.

“I am predicting our number of homeless families will be quadrupled in 2021,” Golla said.

“There are going to be a lot of evictions. We have over 400 people in our prevention program right now and we are doing our best, but unfortunately we are predicting that a lot of them will be evicted and become homeless.”