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PIT Count: Homelessness Rises in New Jersey

By Jared Kofsky and Joshua Trifari

Homelessness appears to be on the rise again in the Garden State. The federally mandated Point-in-Time Count, held on January 23 and 24, 2018, found that the number of people experiencing homelessness in New Jersey has increased by nine percent since 2017, according to the NJCounts report released by Monarch Housing Associates.

The Streetlight participated in the 2018 Mercer County Point-in-Time Count. Volunteers from organizations like Oaks Integrated Care and the Rescue Mission of Trenton traveled throughout the capital city and surrounding suburbs in order to count the number of people believed to be experiencing homelessness and find out how they ended up without permanent housing. Places visited ranged from the Delaware and Raritan Canal to employment agencies to public libraries.

The 2018 Point-in-Time Count shows that there are at least 479 people experiencing homelessness in Mercer County. One of the top causes of homelessness locally was found to be the transition from incarceration to reintegration into society.

The City of Trenton, where the volunteers were based, was found to be home to 75 percent of the county’s population experiencing homelessness, with 21 percent living in Ewing Township. 63 people were unsheltered at the time while 46 percent of those surveyed were classified as “chronically homeless.” 54 people surveyed who were experiencing homelessness were domestic violence victims, and an additional 18 people surveyed were veterans. Slightly more than one tenth of the people surveyed had been experiencing homelessness for more than three years.

2018 Trenton-Mercer Point-in-Time Count volunteers. Photo by Jared Kofsky/The Streetlight.
Ben Thornton of Anchor House speaks to volunteers. Photo by Jared Kofsky/The Streetlight.
Individuals experiencing homelessness used to live in this abandoned Trenton bus. Photo by Jared Kofsky/The Streetlight.
Councilman Duncan Harrison, Jr. speaks to a resident during the 2018 Point-in-Time Count in Trenton. Photo by Jared Kofsky/The Streetlight.
Abandoned buildings on Perry Street in Trenton. Photo by Jared Kofsky/The Streetlight.
Copies of The Wall, the predecessor to The Streetlight, were distributed during the count. Photo by Jared Kofsky/The Streetlight.
Volunteers look for individuals experiencing homelessness along the Delaware and Raritan Canal in Trenton’s West Ward. Photo by Jared Kofsky/The Streetlight.

Contando la Población sin Hogar

Traducido por Annette Espinoza

La falta de hogar se parece esta aumentando nuevamente en New Jersey. Según el informe de NJCounts publicado por Monarch Housing Associates realizado el 23 de enero y el 24 de enero de 2018, el número de personas que viven sin hogar en New Jersey ha aumentado a un nueve por ciento desde 2017.

The Streetlight participó en el 2018 Mercer County Point-in-Time Count. Voluntarios de organizaciones como Oaks Integrated Care y Rescue Mission of Trenton viajaron por toda la capital y los suburbios para contar el número de personas que se creer viven sin hogar y descubrir cómo terminaron sin vivienda permanente. Los lugares visitados van desde Delaware y Raritan Canal hasta agencias de empleo y bibliotecas públicas.

El PIT Count de 2018 muestra que hay al menos 479 personas sin hogar en el condado de Mercer. Una de las principales causas de la falta de vivienda al nivel local fue la transición del encarcelamiento a la reintegración en la sociedad.

Se descubrió que la ciudad de Trenton, donde se basaban los voluntarios, era el hogar de 75 por ciento de la población del condado sin hogar, con un 21 por ciento viviendo en el municipio de Ewing. En ese momento, 63 personas no estaban cubiertas, mientras que el 46 por ciento de los encuestados se clasificaron como “personas sin hogar crónicas”. 54 personas encuestadas que se encontraban sin hogar eran víctimas de violencia doméstica, y otras 18 personas encuestadas eran veteranos. Un poco más de una décima parte de las personas encuestadas habían estado sin hogar durante más de tres años.

News

Morgan and Morgan: Together Once Again

By Jared Kofsky

In our last issue, we brought you the story of Morgan Wilson, a lifelong Mercer County resident who reunited with his long-lost son outside of the Rescue Mission of Trenton. In the time since the story was written, much has changed. Here is Part II of The Streetlight’s exclusive series, Morgan and Morgan.

“The bond that we have is incredible. I just wish he wasn’t so far away.”

That was how Trenton Area Soup Kitchen patron and lifelong Mercer County resident Morgan Wilson described his relation- ship with his son Morgan West Jackson in an interview with The Streetlight last spring.

After being seperated for 24 years, Wilson and West Jackson reunited after running into each other outside of the Rescue Mission of Trenton. When both men realized that they shared the same first name, they engaged each other in conversation.

“I listened to his story that day and I realized that this was my son,” Wilson explained.

Sure enough, through the assistance of Rose Bernard, his case manager at Oaks Integrated Care, Wilson confirmed that West Jackson was his long lost son, the man he had long hoped to see again following a period of incarceration.

Wilson, West Jackson, and Bernard were not the only people excited about the reunion. Word soon spread throughout Oaks Integrated Care’s Trenton-area offices and eventually to West Jackson’s adoptive brother, Darby, Pennsylvania firefighter Eric West Jackson. His brother told The Streetlight that he was very pleased that West Jackson reunited with his father after so many years apart.

Although the father and son saw each other for the first time in over two decades in New Jersey’s capital city, West Jackson was raised in suburban Philadelphia and later lived in New York and Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Despite being seperated by over 140 miles, Wilson and West Jackson continued to communicate frequently over the phone and over the internet. West Jackson signed his father up for Facebook, and the two strived to stay in contact for the next two years, hoping to regularly see each other in person as frequently as possible.

Now, the two Morgans no longer have to wonder when they will be near each other once again.

In late 2017, West Jackson returned to the city of his birth to live near his father for the first time in 26 years. In addition to residing near each other, both Wilson and West Jackson’s living conditions continue to improve.

Wilson recently passed his driver’s test and received his license. He also moved out of transitional housing and is now renting his own apartment in the suburbs, where he lives with his girlfriend and four-year-old son. Meanwhile, West Jackson is now employed locally and sees his father on a regular basis.

Both Wilson and West Jackson have been through quite a journey since West Jackson was born in the early 1990s, with both men experiencing different kinds of successes and failures.

From Wilson’s experiences in transitional housing to West Jackson’s frequent relocations for employment across the Northeast to their surprise reunion encounter outside of a local shelter, their experiences have each been quite memorable, resulting in plenty of stories for them to share with each other.

Clearly, after a quarter century apart, Morgan and Morgan are grateful to be together in Trenton once again.

Morgan Wilson (left) and Rose Bernard (right) outside of the New Jersey State House. Photo by Jared Kofsky/The Streetlight.