Essex County Leads NJ In Homelessness; See The Most Common Causes

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Essex County continues to lead New Jersey in the number of people experiencing homelessness, according to data released in a new report.

On Tuesday, Monarch Housing Associates released the results of the 2022 “point in time count,” an annual effort that compiles a wealth of data about the severity and causes of homelessness in the Garden State. During this year’s count – which took place on the evening of Jan. 25 – a total of 8,754 people across the state were experiencing homelessness, researchers said.

Read the full report and see its methodology here. See local data for Essex County here.

Essex County had 1,914 people experiencing homelessness that night, about 22 percent of the entire state’s total. It was nearly triple that of the next-highest total, Union County, which had 677 homeless residents.

In 2021, there were 1,693 homeless people counted in Essex County, about 21 percent of the state total. In 2020, the county had 2,214 homeless residents, about 23 percent. They were the highest numbers in New Jersey both years.

By far, the most common cause of homelessness in the county was “being asked to leave a shared residence” (about 31.9 percent of those surveyed).

Other leading causes of homelessness in Essex County as reported in the survey included evictions (12.4 percent) and a recent release from prison (10.7 percent).

Most of the county’s homeless residents were found in Newark, the state’s most populated city, which had more than 90 percent of its entire total.

While there’s a “strong correlation” between poverty and homelessness, there is no ignoring the racial gaps that exist in Essex County, which may be influenced by “systemic racism,” researchers said.

In Essex County, most of the people experiencing homelessness were adults, although there were a significant number of children counted, too.

Other key data in Essex County included:

• 37% of people experiencing homelessness reported having some type of disability; 50.9% of those reported having mental health issues
• 9.8 % of people experiencing homelessness were “homeless youth”
• 5.6% of people experiencing homelessness were military veterans
• 4.1% of people experiencing homelessness were victims of domestic violence

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