Art exhibit for creative homelessness solutions coming to Island Heights

Only a few years from now, a generation coming of age in Ocean County will have little or no recollection of Lakewood's Tent City. It doesn't mean that such encampments no longer exist.

On June 12 in Island Heights, a photojournalist and activist who chronicled life in the homeless enclave will exhibit the memories she captured, asking whether its demolition represents progress, or reinforces the status quo.

Sherry Rubel's "Tent City" display opens at the Ocean County Artists Guild with an afternoon reception from 1 PM until 4 PM, and an overview by Rubel at 2.

The makeshift dwellings in a forested area near Cedar Bridge Avenue was razed in 2014 after years of court battles and friction that resonated beyond the township to the county level.

Accusations such as health and safety hazards and trespassing were hurled at squatters, and they fired back with allegations of unconstitutional treatment and intractibility.

Township officials enacted ordinances that would eventually lead to its closure, and for a limited time, helped some individuals pay rent and helped others pay for transportation out of the area.

Ocean County officials maintain a deep reservoir of programs to ensure that people on the streets can bed down for the night, stay nourished, and get physical and psychological support. Advocates readily acknowledge them, but contend that they seek to break the perceptual barriers that obscure paths back to the mainstream.

In 2011, Rubel, a onetime reporter for Patch.com, began recording visual impressions of the enclave. Near the end of her four years of compilations, she brought a proposal to the office of New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3).

That proposal, she noted, evolved into the Tiny Home Pilot Program bill (S2110), introduced in the current session by State Senator Ray Lesniak (D-20).

Rubel also continues to push for the Revival Village project that she originated, and seeks a governing body willing to donate land for a community that capitalizes on the skills of its inhabitants and connects them to the society around them.

See how a minister in Oregon is approaching the same issue:

She says that her exhibition is aimed at calling attention to homelessness and housing crises in New Jersey, particularly at the shore.

Rubel calls her project "an initiative for social change where the values of service, sharing, spiritual nourishment, the ARTS, and a commitment to recognizing each individual's gifts and contributions offer a model of renewal for the wider society. Through a combination of community life, job training opportunities, tiny home building, the arts and working on the land."