Photo courtesy of Reena Rose Sibayan / Jersey Journal file photo.
The housing crisis may be closer to home than you think.
The state of New Jersey has been experiencing an increase in the homeless population since 2020, with a 9% growth in 2020, 8% growth in 2022 and 17% growth in 2023.
On Oct. 22, NJCounts found 12,680 men, women and children, in 9,148 households, experienced or are experiencing homelessness across New Jersey.
Additionally, 10,267 people were experiencing homelessness in New Jersey on the night of Jan. 24, 2023. That is a 24% increase between 2023 and 2024 and a 10% increase from 2022 to 2023’s 17% increase.
NJCounts is the annual Point-in-Time (PIT) Count of individuals and families experiencing homelessness in New Jersey. It is a comprehensive one-day count of all persons experiencing homelessness across the state, mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
It is directed by New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA) and managed by Monarch Housing Associates.
The counts for Hudson County have not followed the trend, the increase in people experiencing homelessness in Hudson County on Jan. 24, 2023 was 920. On Jan. 23, 2024, it was reported that 1,168 people were experiencing homelessness in Hudson County.
This was a 38% increase in homelessness between 2022 and 2023, and then a 27% increase in homelessness between 2023 and 2024.
With winter upon us, here are some ways that one can help.
Make-A-Difference Jersey City, or MAD Jersey City, offers free meals where they hand out in Jersey City’s Journal Square every first Saturday of the month.
They also leverage their connections to provide the community with a “One-Stop-Shop” offering haircuts from local barbers; the latest being from Virile Barbershop in Jersey City and a clothing drive with articles of clothing that have been collected from all over the state.
MAD Jersey City is a non-profit headquartered out of The Filipino-American Christian Reformed Church and they are always accepting aid in all forms, hands or resources.
Slice of Culture asked Lexi of MADJC and others, if she’s noticed an increase in population presence in the area and it has been a resounding “yes.”
Kelly Ortiz, a community advocate and event coordinator of Our Children Love Always, a non-profit dedicated to helping families stricken by health and wealth burdens, agreed and continued to state that some of the new faces “look like her and it’s scary.”
Ortiz is also the founder of the “YKelly Construction LLC,” a company that executes renovations for affordable housing residencies in the state.
The organizations that Ortiz is involved in extends far beyond putting a band-aid on any of the high level problems.
This year, they held a potluck in Jersey City for a Thanksgiving toy drive for the holidays in partnership with It’s a Vibe Nutrition of Newark and Devin Jordan Security Training Academy of Belleville.
Their goal is to bring hospitalized youth a form of normalcy in a bleak situation.
This allows anyone to participate in giving back on their own initiative. Without the need to initiate their own form of mutual aid. Mutual aid is “is where people in an area, or a community, come together to support one another, collectively meeting each other’s needs without the help of official bodies like the state or NGOs. It often arrises due to neglect of government provision for certain classes of people,” according to mutualaid.coop.
Andrea Angelos, a West New York Native, has begun her journey in growing a business called Hungry Dre’s Kitchen and still makes time to give back to her community on her own accord by being an advocate for mutual aid.
Angelos went on to express her experiences with housing and its growing challenges in all areas of New Jersey and her solution is “to be the person you feel is needed in the world.”
Go out there and find your local soup kitchen, donate those old things collecting dust on your shelf, do your part in making this place slightly more bearable. The holidays weigh down some more than others.
