Disabled Firefighter Targets Homelessness In Camden County

CAMDEN COUNTY, NJ — Tom Peculski looked down at the man’s feet and was baffled. The shoes he was looking at were more rubber band than leather, as Peculski put it.

“What’s going on with your shoes?” he asked.

The man was homeless, and couldn’t afford to buy new shoes. They were in the woods, and it was frigid outside. So Peculski went to the store, paid $20 and bought the man new shoes. It meant he had to put off paying some bills another week or two, but that didn’t matter to Peculski.

“Comcast can wait another week,” he said.

Peculski, 45 of Deptford, has always been focused on helping people, and now the disabled firefighter has his sights on the homeless problem in Camden County. He sometimes tries to help them find their way home. Sometimes he tries to help them with their addiction. He always wants to make sure they are better off than they were before.

“I might just go sit with them for an hour and talk,” Peculski said. “I always end my interactions with them with a hug, just so they know someone cares. A lot of them feel forgotten.”

And he sees a positive attitude change in those he comes into contact with as a result.

He knows he can’t save the world, but he’s always done what he can to save one person at a time. At the age of 16, he became a volunteer firefighter in Voorhees. In 2001, he responded to New York after terrorists hijacked two airplanes and flew them into the World Trade Center.

When he was a medic in Philadelphia, he worked with an organization that fed the homeless every other weekend in Love Park.

“I always saw people in an urban area, in a contained setting,” Peculski said. “I knew there were people in our area, but I thought it was all in Camden.”

He said he was floored to learn homelessness was spread out throughout Camden County. It’s in the woods of Gloucester Township. There’s a man with a full-time job living in the woods behind a golf course.

Homelessness is even found in the Eastern Regional High School graduate’s hometown of Voorhees.

“When you say homelessness, you think of people sleeping on grates in the city,” Peculski said. “ … People have no idea there are homeless people living in the woods behind their house.”

According to Monarch Housing Associates’ 2019 NJ Counts Point-in-Time Homelessness Report, a total of 603 people in Camden County were dealing with homelessness on Jan. 22. While the majority (482 people) were in Camden, Cherry Hill, Oaklyn, Haddon Township and Haddonfield each reported at least one person who was dealing with homelessness. A total of 170 people were identified as dealing with chronic homelessness at that point.

The homeless in Camden County have a variety of reasons they find themselves in the situation they are in, including substance abuse, disabilities and health concerns.

Many of them are dealing with mental health problems, Peculski said. Some have full-time jobs, but they just can’t afford a house to call home.

See related: Car Donation Aids Homeless Moorestown Family On Road To Recovery

“And most of them don’t want to be bothered,” Peculski said. “They might go through your trash, but they won’t break into your house.”

Peculski became exposed to the homeless problem in Camden County recently, after a family contacted him about a missing man he went to school with. The man was battling addiction, and Peculski ended up finding him at a lake in Voorhees.

After that, Peculski kept going out, and he kept finding homeless people, many living in tents in the woods. Some of them enjoy living off the land.

As he began to find more people, more people began to contact him with issues via social media. He even started a Helping Hand Outreach Program on Facebook, so he could keep all the cases straight.

His fiancé Amy Ashenfelter is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst at Oaks Integrated Care, a nonprofit that helps children, adults and families living with a mental illness, addiction or developmental disability.

See related: Program To Help Survivors Of Opioid Overdoses In Burlington County

He says Ashenfelter has a more motherly approach than he does. He’s a little more rough around the edges.

“I asked one woman, ‘how much do you weigh?,’” he said. “ She asked why, and I said, ‘so I know how many people to bring with me when we have to come get your body.’”

She was furious She also called him after cursing him out and asked him to help her find help. He gets results, but he also wants those he’s there for to get help. He doesn’t care if you’re breaking the law, but he also needs to know if you are doing heroin because there are certain health considerations and things he can do to help.

See related: Camden County Extends SAVE Program That Fights Addiction

“There’s about 10 to 12 people I’m working with right now,” Peculski said. “Most of them don’t need my attention all the time.”

He makes sure he always checks up on them. In the last week, Camden County has declared a Code Blue Weather Alert twice, and Peculski has been in touch with the homeless people he knows to make sure they are warm. Some use propane heaters, and he’s bought propane tanks for them.

Peculski’s not a rich person. He’s also not a healthy person, and that’s not a secret. While helping victims on Sept. 11, 2001, he was exposed to toxic dust in the air. In the years since, many of the victims and first responders have been diagnosed with rhinosinusitis, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), asthma, sleep apnea, cancer, posttraumatic stress disorder, respiratory disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depression, and anxiety disorder.

Peculski has what has come to be known as 911 cough. He visits the hospital five or six times a year. If he spends two or three hours helping someone, he’ll have to spend the majority of the rest of the day sleeping.

“I don’t have a lot of time left, and I want to leave my mark while I’m here,” Peculski said. “ … People have it worse than I do.”

He’s divorced, and there are holidays that go by in which he doesn’t see his children. Thanksgiving is around the corner, and he said he may make a turkey and share it with some of the homeless people he works with.

It’s one way to let the homeless know they’re not forgotten.

For a list of warming centers around Camden County, visit camdencounty.com.

For a list of homeless shelters in Camden County, visit hud.gov.

For more on homlessness in New Jersey, visit monarchhousing.org.