Burlington County Has Second Highest Homeless Population in N.J., Report Shows

Burlington County is home to the second highest rate of homelessness in New Jersey, according to a new report from Monarch Housing Associates, a non-profit group that strives to end homelessness.

There are a total of 928 people in 595 households in Burlington County who are experiencing homelessness, according to the NJ Counts 2016 report. This accounts for 10.4 percent of the total homeless population in the state.

Burlington County's numbers reflected a decline from last year’s counts by 419 people and 255 households. However, there was an overall increase of 105 people (12.8 percent) since 2012.

For purposes of the report, homeless people are classified into two groups, as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD):

• Sheltered, or “living in a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designated to provide temporary living arrangement (including congregate shelters, transitional housing, and hotels and motels paid for by charitable organizations or by federal, state, or local government programs for low-income individuals),” and
• Unsheltered, “with a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings, including a car, park, abandoned building, bus or train station, airport, or camping ground.”

The survey must be taken for one overnight period during the last 10 days of January, and doesn’t include anyone who is at risk for becoming homeless.

The report classifies a household as “any group of persons who, if they were able to attain permanent housing, would choose to live together; and, shared the same sleeping arrangements on the night of the count.”

Essex County leads the way with a homeless population of 1,782, which is nearly 20 percent of the state total.
Salem and Warren counties are at the bottom of the scale, with homeless populations of less than 1 percent.

There are a total of 8,941 homeless men, women and children across the state as of Jan. 26, according to the report.

In Burlington County, 845 homeless persons stayed in emergency shelters, 68 stayed in transitional housing, and 15 were unsheltered on the night of the count. There were decreases seen in both emergency shelter (32.9%) and transitional housing (13.9%) from 2015, but an increase in the number of unsheltered persons counted (87.5%, 7 persons).

Of the 595 homeless households counted in Burlington County in 2016, 144 (24.2%) were families with at least one adult and one child under the age of 18. These families included 273 children under age 18, and 184 adults. The average family size was three people.

On the night of the count, 138 families (95.8%) were staying in emergency shelters, five families (3.5%) were staying in transitional housing and one family was unsheltered.

There was an overall decrease of 64 homeless families (30.8%) from 2015 to 2016.

A total of 75.8% (451) of the homeless households counted in Burlington County were households without children under 18, and were predominately composed of individual adults (95.6%). The remaining 20 households were adult only households composed of 40 adults.

A total of 399 (88.5%) of these adult-only households were staying in emergency shelters, 40 (8.9%) were in transitional housing, and 12 (2.7%) were unsheltered. The number of adult-only households was down by 29.2% (186 households) from 2015. There were no households with only children under 18 years old reported on the night of the count in Burlington County in 2016, a decrease of five from 2015.

About 37 percent of those considered homeless were disabled, and 68 homeless households had a victim of domestic violence. The number of homeless veterans was down 27.8 percent from last year, at 13.

Fifty-nine percent of homeless households had no income, and 220 homeless people had been so for over a year, while 175 were homeless for over six months.

Nearly 40 percent (235 people) of the homeless in Burlington County had been asked to leave a shared residence. Eviction and recent release from prison or jail were the next two causes.

For more on the Burlington County homeless situation, click here.

To see the full report for the state, click here.

The attached image is a Patch file photo