The Shifting Landscape Of Homelessness In Downtown Toms River

In full disclosure I know little about the situation regarding homeless people who have been congregating in Toms River. Most of what I do know is from Facebook and some published reports and unfortunately you have to take some of that with a grain of salt.  Social media is often very one sided and political so you have to be careful in making conclusions based on this.

Regardless there is a problem.  From what I could gather some if not many of the homeless were living in the woods in Toms River and the camp they built was taken down and they were forced to vacate.  Whoever made this decision must have known that the people involved were not going to disappear but rather find another location and that seems to be in downtown Toms River in the area around the Ocean County Library and nearby parking garage.  This reminds me of what happened in New York City in the 80’s and 90’s when the focus was on cleaning up the Times Square area which was home to many of the homeless population. While that worked on the surface the homeless just relocated to other parts of the city.

Again with little knowledge it appears Toms River does not have a concrete plan to tackle the problem and has ignored or turned down solutions offered by organizations that advocate on behalf of the homeless.  It has led to an often contentious battle which has resulted in a nasty dialogue that seems to be going nowhere.  Fortunately during the heat wave earlier this week there were those who donated everything from cots to food/water so those in need could shelter in the parking garage.  The effort was spearheaded by Just Believe Inc. and individuals.

I’m not pointing fingers at anyone but clearly there is a growing problem that needs to be addressed with the focus on helping those in need. If not done soon things will get worse before they get better.