09/03/2026
OCEAN COUNTY — HOW MUCH LONGER ARE WE GOING TO ACCEPT THIS?
Today, I helped a young couple who are currently sleeping on the ground in a wooded, bush area right here in Ocean County.
We brought them food and blankets.
And as I drove away, I found myself asking a question that I have been asking for years:
How is this still acceptable in Ocean County?
I came to this area in 2011, and since then I have spent years fighting to help people experiencing homelessness and those who have been disenfranchised.
We have created programs.
We have built partnerships.
We have operated Code Blue.
We have responded to Code Red.
We have provided food, transportation, outreach, case management and housing assistance.
We have done everything we possibly can with the resources available to us.
But here is the uncomfortable truth:
Ocean County still does not have a comprehensive, properly designed homeless shelter system capable of addressing the level of homelessness we are seeing.
And at some point, we have to stop pretending that temporary emergency responses are enough.
They aren’t.
Code Blue is important. It saves lives.
Code Red is important. It protects people during extreme weather.
But these programs were never meant to be the permanent answer to homelessness.
You cannot solve homelessness by simply opening a temporary warming or cooling location and then sending people back outside when the weather changes.
That is a Band-Aid on a much larger wound.
There are people experiencing homelessness throughout this county — in Toms River, Lakewood, Jackson, Little Egg Harbor, Tuckerton and communities all across Ocean County.
People are sleeping in cars.
People are sleeping in tents.
People are sleeping in the woods.
People are sleeping on the ground.
And some are doing it while suffering from addiction, mental health challenges, physical disabilities, unemployment, domestic violence, or simply because they cannot find an affordable place to live.
Where are they supposed to go?
That is the question I want our county leadership to answer.
Not with another meeting.
Not with another temporary program.
Not with another Band-Aid.
Where are these people supposed to go tonight?
We have the ability to build buildings throughout this county.
We have the ability to approve development.
We have the ability to invest millions of dollars into infrastructure.
So why is it so difficult to create the infrastructure necessary to address one of the most basic human needs:
A safe place to sleep.
I am not asking Ocean County to solve every person’s problems.
I am asking for the infrastructure and resources necessary so that organizations, agencies, municipalities and service providers can actually do the work.
Because organizations like Just Believe Inc. can bring the food.
We can bring the blankets.
We can make the phone calls.
We can go into the woods.
We can advocate.
We can help people apply for housing.
We can fight alongside them.
But we cannot build an entire countywide shelter system by ourselves.
And frankly, we shouldn’t have to.
SO HERE IS MY DEMAND TO OCEAN COUNTY LEADERSHIP:
Publicly present a countywide homelessness action plan that identifies:
• Where permanent emergency shelter beds will be created.
• How many beds will be available and where they will be located.
• How families, couples, veterans, individuals and people with disabilities will be accommodated.
• What funding will be committed to making it happen.
• Which county departments, municipalities and nonprofit partners will be responsible for implementation.
• A specific timeline for opening these facilities.
And I am asking that this plan be developed with the organizations and people who are actually on the front lines of homelessness every single day.
Don’t just ask us to come to another meeting.
Bring us to the table when the decisions are being made.
Because the people living outside don’t need another promise.
They need a door.
They need a bed.
They need a shower.
They need safety.
They need dignity.
And they need a path forward.
This isn’t about politics for me.
It’s about people.
It’s about the young couple I met today.
It’s about the veteran sleeping somewhere tonight.
It’s about the single mother trying to protect her children.
It’s about the elderly person who has nowhere to go.
It’s about the person battling addiction who desperately needs a safe environment to begin recovery.
These people are not invisible.
They are our neighbors.
And they deserve better than being told to wait until the next Code Blue or Code Red.
They deserve better than a blanket handed to them because there is nowhere else to send them.
They deserve a real place to go.
I have spent years fighting this fight, and I will continue to do so.
But today reminded me that we need more than volunteers, nonprofits and good-hearted people trying to hold this system together with duct tape.
We need leadership.
We need resources.
We need facilities.
We need a plan.
And most importantly, we need action.
So this is my message to Ocean County leadership:
Please stop asking the people on the front lines to keep doing more with less.
Stop treating homelessness like an emergency that only exists when the temperature drops below freezing or rises above 90 degrees.
Homelessness exists 365 days a year.
The people experiencing it deserve a response 365 days a year.
I’ve been fighting this fight since 2011.
I’m not going anywhere.
But I am asking the people who have the authority, the funding and the ability to make these decisions:
Give Ocean County a real homelessness plan. Give us a timeline. Give us the resources. And give the people living outside a place to go.
Because tonight, somewhere in Ocean County, someone will still be sleeping on the ground.
And tomorrow, we will still be handing out blankets.
We can—and we must—do better.
