Monmouth County elected officials and backers of the homeless shelter gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony Nov. 7.
Photo by Allison Perrine
OCEANPORT – The county’s new emergency homeless shelter in the Fort Monmouth section of Oceanport will be a temporary refuge for up to 12 men and four women while they work to get back on their feet. It replaces a facility destroyed by Super Storm Sandy in 2012.
The shelter was part of a prior agreement between a fort agency and the former U.S. Army base.
The tan, 4,500-square-foot adult homeless shelter is located at the corner of Courier Avenue and Murphy Drive. It offers temporary housing and counseling for up to 30 days per resident while they search for more permanent resources. After the 30-day stay, individuals can re-enter the shelter after a 90-day wait, said Freeholder Director Thomas Arnone. Services are funded by the county and are administered by the Affordable Housing Alliance (AHA).
“People sometimes forget life doesn’t always go in the direction that you would like it to,” said Donna Blaze, CEO of AHA of NJ, at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Nov. 7. “This can happen to anyone. People experience trauma; people experience mental illness. Life changes from a place of goodness to a place of fear and concern.”
Some families must live in their cars, or they come across addiction struggles and lose their way, Blaze said. Without compassion or support from others, she said “those people die; they wind up in jails. They don’t have an oppor tunity for rehabilitation.” That’s why the opening of the shelter was a time to celebrate the chance to revive people’s lives, she said. “People’s lives will be changed by this opportunity here.”
The former emergency homeless shelter in Oceanport was established years ago when Fort Monmouth closed down, as an agreement between the U.S. Army and Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA). FMERA was required to provide services to the homeless population in the vicinity of Fort Monmouth. The building was later destroyed by flooding during Super Storm Sandy in 2012 and its operations were temporarily moved to Freehold Township. Its reconstruction in the former Fort Monmouth was funded by FMERA with a $1.9 million grant of the $2 million total cost.
Now, the new shelter includes men’s and women’s dormitories, with separate showers and bathrooms. It also has a kitchen, pantry, computer room, laundry room, common area and more. Its hallways are freshly painted with pale blue and green accents. It is staffed 24 hours a day, every day of the year, Arnone said. Shelter residents may park their cars at the shelter if they need to. The shelter is not associated with nearby Family Promise, an organization that provides services to homeless families, because the adult shelter is for single adults only.
According to shelter director Peter Boynton, during the reconstruction the county surveyed how many men versus women were referred to the shelter in the last several years. They then used that data to determine how to construct the building.
Photo by Allison Perrine
“I’m excited that it’s opening. I think that it’s a great opportunity,” Boynton said. He added that this location is closer to job centers that will make it easier for his team “to work in tandem so we can provide better services to the residents,” he said. “It just makes it a lot easier to help them get on their feet.”
At the Nov. 7 ribbon cutting, Arnone noted that while Monmouth County is overall a wealthy and financially stable area, it’s not that way across the board. “We recognize this and we know there’s a need, and we know we’ll be there to assist to the best of our ability,” he said. “Nobody wants to be in those times where they come here. They don’t control some of those times where they come here, but we should be there to help them.”
Freeholder Lillian G. Burry, who serves on FMERA, also spoke that day and said she is “very pleased with the outcome” of the shelter, which was designed by Spiezle Architectural Group. “I’m delighted we’re at this point.” Freeholder Susan M. Kiley echoed similar remarks that same morning.
