Jodi-Ann Williams, a Carneys Point resident, and Shannon Preen from Elmer were among the volunteers who were out from 4 a.m. to tally how many people in Salem County are experiencing homelessness and the different factors driving it. They were doing it as part of NJ Counts, the annual census, which is coordinated by Monarch Housing Associates and commissioned by the NJ Housing & Mortgage Finance Agency.
Christina Chillem, executive director of the Salem County Interagency Council of Human Services, said, “Evictions, injury, a breakup of the household, and rising rents … [and] ineligibility for assistance — those were the reasons that we’ve come across so far, specifically.”
Last year, Salem County recorded 20 homeless people in shelters, the lowest figure for any county in New Jersey. That makes it harder to get federal funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development; the number of people identified determines how much federal funding the state and counties get to deal with homelessness.
Nadine Azari of Monarch Housing, who is coordinating the count statewide, said it’s tougher to get a good count in New Jersey’s rural counties.
