Several months ago, The New York Times published an op-ed about the state of housing insecurity in America. “A Life Without a Home: Voices from America’s Tents, Shelters, Cars, Motels, and Couchs” approached the issue by listening to and photographing families and individuals experiencing homelessness. She shocked many by reporting that they were no just people we see sleeping on the streets or in parks. Most of us are unaware of who may be homeless where we live because it seems like they have a “home.” Not so!
Often, the first step when you lose your home is to move in with friends or family. It is called “duplication” when two families live together in a space intended for one. If it’s for a short period of time, it might not seem so bad. In fact, when the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development conducts its annual housing insecurity survey, it does not consider a family or person homeless if they are in a dual living situation.
However, when Congress passed the McKinney-Vento Act in 1987, it recognized youth and children as homeless if they lived in duplicate housing. This legislation allows more than 1.2 million students in public schools to access benefits such as free lunch, transportation and dedicated social workers. Despite having a roof over their heads, these children face stressors that affect their learning, mental health and emotional well-being.
We have to do more than put NJ residents in motels. We have to solve the homeless problem
As board chair of Family Promise of Bergen County, I have often heard people say, “Well, at least they have a place to stay and they should be grateful for that.”
TRUE. They can have a roof over their heads. But we shouldn’t ignore the fact that we know there are serious short- and long-term consequences to couch surfing and double living. A sofa is not a house.
A motel is also not a house. I’m not talking about staying for a week or more in a motel on the Jersey Shore or in the Poconos. I’m talking about living 24/7 in motels on Route 46. . . and Route 4. . . and Route 17. I used to wonder, “Who really lives in these motels?” I never really considered that these motels were another last resort, offering rooms to homeless families and individuals.
This opened my eyes when COVID-19 hit in 2020, when residents of the city shelter in Hackensack – where our nonprofit serves free meals to more than 200 people daily, 365 days a year – were relocated to motels for health issues. reasons. Instead of serving them dinner at the shelter every night, we packed their meals on takeout trays and delivered them to everyone who had been relocated. As I got to know some of the individuals and families confined to those motel rooms, I began to understand that most of them were looking for some type of affordable housing.
Oh, once again and unfortunately, HUD does not consider people living in motel rooms to be homeless. Therefore, they are denied the services that HUD should provide to people experiencing homelessness. By simply excluding this entire group from its definition of homelessness, our government is simply turning its back on them.
Another surprise for me came when we served lunches for 27 weeks in Englewood right after COVID hit. A woman came to get her meals every day, driving a relatively new car, and she always looked well dressed. One volunteer commented, “Why does she need a free meal?”
The only thing we knew about her was the outward appearance of her car and her clothes. It soon became clear that she was living in her car. In the years that followed, I noticed many, many cars full of clothes and other items. Look a little closer. You may notice cars like these parked in the corners of store and office parking lots at night. It’s a fact of life right under our noses.
Open your eyes in Bergen County to our neighbors who live in their cars or in tents
Most of us don’t see this as an important issue where we live. But as with cars, look around. When you see a tent in strange areas of our county, chances are it’s not someone at a campground. A car or a tent is not a house.
A shelter is not a home either. Just ask Hackensack County shelter residents if they feel like where they live is “home” to them. Over the years, I’ve talked to hundreds of people who lived there. Not surprisingly, almost none of them ever referred to the shelter as “home,” the way you or I talk about our home.
Clearly, a couch, a motel, a car, a tent, or a shelter is NOT a home. All of us, including our government and politicians, need to face this. The fact is that most of us deny the extent of homelessness in the county where we live.
Last year, our organization alone helped shelter and guide more than 130 families in Bergen County. There are 175 parents with 245 children. We all need to open our eyes, see that families facing homelessness are all around us, and recognize that this is a real problem that needs to be addressed. The first step is to see. Then we can have the ability and the will to act. For more information, join or support our work at Family Promise at bergenfamilypromise.org.
Paul Shackford is board president of Family Promise of Bergen County.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Why We Need More Affordable Housing in Bergen County
