In 2022, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka rolled out “The Path Home” to end chronic homelessness in New Jersey’s biggest city. Just a year later, street homelessness was down by more than half — 57.6% to be exact, from 3,841 unsheltered individuals to 1,627.
“The mayor created the Office of Homeless Services just over two years ago, so it’s still new, but he saw that there was a need to have a dedicated office to really address homelessness in our city,” said Luis Ulerio, director of the Newark Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services. “He charged our office to create the city’s first strategic plan around homelessness, which we were really proud to launch in December of 2022.
“We immediately began to implement a lot of its strategies over that year, which included focusing on reducing street homelessness throughout our communities.”
While the plan’s sophomore year saw an uptick in homelessness in line with the rest of the state and country, Ulerio said new initiatives, like enhanced street outreach teams and more transitional housing, helped absorb the increase. As a result, street homelessness continues to trend downward.
Last month, street outreach efforts expanded, and Newark now boasts several new teams through nonprofit providers and local hospitals, along with a new non-emergency hotline for unhoused people in need of assistance.
However, different factors are at play across the Hudson here in New York City, where roughly 4,140 unsheltered people were counted in last year’s HOPE homeless count on Jan. 23, 2024 (this year’s count occurred at the end of last month). 97% of unhoused people in New York City are sheltered.
According to Kelly Quirk, chief program officer of the Bowery Residents’ Committee (BRC), the right-to-shelter laws are the biggest distinguishing factor in her organization’s work between the two cities through the New Jersey Transit. Of course, a consent decree from the landmark Callahan v. Carey lawsuit means a short-term bed is available to anyone in the Big Apple — a unique legal protection among American cities.
“The relationship with folks is the number one key, and that’s not going to change anywhere that you go,” said Quirk. “Newark has put an emphasis on making sure that there is bed availability and that they’ve reduced barriers to entry. I will say there [aren’t] really barriers to entry in New York — if someone wants to leave the street, we can find a place for them. There are specific clients who have specific either autonomy requests and/or maybe certain medical needs.”
She adds that homeless services tend to be place-based. “If you’re getting benefits in New York, you are not [also] getting benefits in New Jersey,” she said.
To be clear, the overlap between Newark and New York City is not big for BRC. Roughly a few dozen individuals enroll in its cross-state services, which collaborate with the Path Home providers to avoid overlap in services (the program requires participants to consent).
“I need to know which clients are in New Jersey and I need to know who they’re working with there, and then we can have a conversation about ‘I’m at this point in a process with them, you’re at that point in a process with them, what makes the most sense for us with this individual to get them housed as quickly as possible,’” explained Quirk.
Lasheema Sanders-Edward, a regional coordinator for nonprofit partner Collaborative Support Programs of New Jersey, said an outreach worker from her now-employer reached her when she was experiencing homelessness. In a recent press conference, she said constant outreach was key “for those who have lost hope in services.”
“They met me where I was,” said Sanders-Edward over the phone. “I didn’t know, and I wasn’t really aware of what was going on with me, and it was also along with substance use, so I ended up homeless. This outreach worker took a liking to me, and every day, they met me at the train station. They came there, they bought me what I needed. They helped me … get my birth certificate, as they said they would be able to do.
“And little by little, I started to progress, and eventually, I got curious about getting help.”
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.