Brick Fundraiser To Aid Homeless, Honor The Lost

BRICK, NJ -- Last month, Kenneth Beers was found dead in a field near a grocery store.

He had no permanent address. He used a cardboard box for shelter.

And his story of homelessness and dying alone is one of hundreds that occur every year across the country, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless.

On Monday, the coalition hopes to draw attention to the issue of homelessness with its annual Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day, honoring those who have died as a result of being homeless. It is held on Dec. 21 annually because it is the winter solstice, the longest night of the year.

In Brick, Ocean County Homeless Outreach will have a Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day event on Monday evening at the Java Haus, 502 Brick Boulevard, from 7-9 p.m.

The event will include live music, readings, and testimonials.

Ocean County Homeless Outreach provides free food, clothing, haircuts, and laundry services in a safe supportive environment to assist those in Ocean County who lack shelter.

According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, more than 600,000 people were homeless nationwide during a 2013 survey by the federal department of Housing and Urban Development. Nearly 40 percent of those people were without any shelter. And in 2013, more than 700 people nationwide died as a result of hypothermia because they did not have shelter.

HUD also found:

• Most homeless persons (85 percent) are individuals while 15 percent of homeless persons are in family households.
• 33 percent of all homeless people were youths under the age of 24.
• 57,849 veterans, overwhelmingly 92 percent male, were homeless on a single night in January 2013. 60 percent were residing in shelters or transitional housing programs, while 40 percent were without shelter.
• 48 percent of homeless individuals (without families) were found to be living without shelter.
• Families experiencing homelessness made up 50 percent of those who were sheltered.