Brick Home's Licensing Under Review After Neighbors' Complaints

BRICK, NJ — A quiet dead-end street in the Herbertsville section has become the center of a controversy over a home built by a nonprofit to help low-income residents that township officials say is operating as transitional housing for the homeless without proper licensing.

The home on Iowa Avenue is the subject of a petition accusing Saltbox Homes of turning the neighborhood into "a revolving door of homeless strangers." A petition posted on Change.org but removed on Wednesday prompted a multitude of complaints to Brick Township authorities.

"We have received many, many calls on this," said Joanne Bergin, Brick Township business administrator, who said Saltbox Homes is operating it as transitional housing for homeless women — a function that requires state licensing.

"There's a lot of misunderstanding of what's going on," said Bill Taylor, the chief executive officer of Saltbox Homes. But he declined to comment further, saying his attorney is handling the matter. The Saltbox website says its mission is "Developing high quality single family homes to rent to moderate-income families." The homes are "for elderly who can live 'independently.' We do not provide 'assisted living,' and therefore cannot provide homes for those needing assistance."

Bergin said the certificate of occupancy issued for the home in the spring was for a single-family home, and that the matter is being investigated by the state. The Department of Community Affairs oversees the licensing of rooming houses and group homes.

"It’s the same as a group home for people with intellectual/developmental disabilities and transitional homes for victims of domestic violence," Bergin said. "They are permitted in residential areas without the need for a variance or site plan, but they are required to be licensed by the state. This home is not (licensed)."

On its website, Saltbox Homes is described as "a nonprofit charitable 501c that develops residential rental properties for those facing hardships in life."

In the petition posted by Diana Smith alleged Saltbox is "recruiting homeless people from Tent City in Lakewood" to live in the home and notes that it is not far from three schools.

In an email to Patch, Smith said a bus marked "Destiny's Bridge" is parked in front of the home frequently. Destiny's Bridge is the name of the organization led by Steve Brigham, who has dedicated much of his life to assisting the homeless in the Ocean/Monmouth area. He uses the bus to transport items to help the homeless who living in the woods and otherwise assist them.

Smith said she and her husband, who have lived on the street for two years, spoke to Taylor while the house was under construction.

"He lied to our faces the whole time, saying he was building it for himself, and he never mentioned the organization," she said. "He then told us he was going to rent the house out, but it didn’t seem like it was to a family because there were so many different people coming and going, we couldn’t tell who was actually living there."

Brigham, in a public post on Facebook, said the residents are women, and each pays rent to live there. He declined to comment directly for this article. On his post, some of the women living in the home commented they now feel unsafe as a result of the petition and attention it has brought. They declined to speak with Patch.

Homelessness is a problem throughout Ocean County. According to the Jan. 28, 2020 "Point In Time" annual count, there were 344 homeless people, 44 of whom are considered "chronically homeless" and 25 of whom were "unsheltered." "Unsheltered" are those living in the woods and parks around Ocean County, mostly hidden from public sight.

Across New Jersey, there were 9,663 people experiencing homelessness on the night of the count. About 1,743 of those people were considered "chronically homeless," and 1,786 people were "unsheltered." Some are veterans. Some are victims of domestic violence who have fled abusive environments. Some are teens and young adults forced to leave home for a variety of reasons.

In Ocean County, there is no year-round homeless shelter. There are shelters for women and children escaping domestic violence, such as Dottie's House and Providence House. There are programs for homeless teens, such as Ocean's Harbor House.

But the number of people in need far outstrips the programs available. When the Toms River Township Council voted in the spring of 2018 to buy and tear down the former Red Carpet Inn on Water Street, advocates for the homeless urged them to turn it into a shelter, to accommodate those in need.

That led to the creation of Toms River's emergency Code Blue shelter at Riverwood Park, but the facility only operates on nights where temperatures are forecast to fall below 35 degrees. That means for much of the year, people who simply don't earn enough to cover rent and utilities find themselves without a place indoors to stay.

That's how so many have wound up living in wooded areas.

There have been efforts in Ocean County to address the problem, and a scattering of local organizations are trying to help those who are homeless get back on their feet with a safe place to stay.Just Believe Inc. in Toms River, which provides the volunteers at the Riverwood Code Blue center, works with people one-on-one to help them find work and a place to stay.

But housing prices remain a serious hurdle. Housing assistance programs are strapped and in Brick, there are waiting lists to get into places such as the George Conway Apartments and the Brick Housing Authority building, both on Chambers Bridge Road, which serve low-income seniors and those with disabilities.

According to the website Fair Market Rent.org, the 2019 fair market rent — the amount the federal Housing and Urban Development department used to set payment standards for federal housing assistance programs — for a two-bedroom apartment in Ocean County is $1,479. The median rent was $1,579.

And affordable housing can be out of reach for those working minimum-wage jobs and living paycheck to paycheck, where one significant illness or a layoff can devastate finances and lead to eviction. Monarch Housing Associates, which spearheads the Point in Time homeless count, reported 973 households found themselves homeless due to loss of income or an increase in rent.

In 2017, there was a bill proposing a pilot program to create "tiny homes" that would give the homeless the dignity of shelter at a more affordable cost, but the bill languished in the state Legislature.

There was a 2016 proposal by Ocean Inc. to build a 24-unit tiny home development that would have included 10 micro houses for homeless veterans in Tuckerton, but that was rejected.

Saltbox Homes appears to be hoping to bridge the gap. It encourages potential donors by saying, "You can become part of building a stronger community, while earning interest on your investment in real estate." The group purchased a second lot, next door to the current home, and has plans to build a second home.

Smith, in the petition, mentioned the additional property: "The organization also bought the property next door to (the just-built home) and have the plans to build another home for the same purpose. With different homeless people rotating in and out of the house, our once quiet, safe, close knit neighborhood is now a revolving door of homeless strangers."

On Wednesday night she said she was removing it because "We got the word out to the neighborhood, and now it’s in the hands of Brick and the State of NJ."

Brigham, who said in his Facebook post that he visits the home often because he is good friends with one of the women who lives there, expressed frustration with the petition's comments about the homeless, saying his mother "taught me that you don’t judge other people, because there is a lot of things you may not know or understand about that person’s past or circumstances."

Bergin said the police department has been called several times "because of the comings and goings and the concerns neighbors have about this home and its use." Police have been documenting the findings at each call. But she said the town's concern is that Saltbox gets licensed.

"Our position is that the organization needs to secure the proper licensing, because that ultimately ensures the safety of the residents and the care plan for the transition," Bergin said. "It also determines the process for intake and placement."

The state will make the determination of whether the house "meets the criteria for a license as permitted for specific services," Bergin said. "If it does not meet the licensing criteria and is unable to secure one on that basis, it will be considered a boarding house, which is not permitted" under Brick's zoning. That could force the residents to leave the home.

It was not immediately clear how long the investigation might take.

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