Essex County Has Most Homeless In NJ; Evictions Played A Big Role – Montclair, NJ Patch
ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Essex County has the most homeless residents in New Jersey yet again, and this year it wasn’t even close, a report says.
With a whopping 2,214 people counted on Jan. 28, Essex County has about 23 percent of the state’s entire homeless population, according to the 2020 NJ Counts survey, which was released earlier this week.
Read the full study and see its methodology here.
Hudson County had the second-highest number of homeless people (944), followed by Middlesex County (666) and Camden County (633). See the full, county-by-county totals below.
Across New Jersey, there were 9,663 people experiencing homelessness on the night of the count. About 1,743 of those people were considered “chronically homeless,” and 1,786 people were “unsheltered.”
The statewide homeless total has increased by about 9 percent since 2019, researchers said.
This year, about 20.8 percent of the households surveyed said that “being asked to leave a shared residence” was the reason they were homeless, Monarch Housing Associates reported.
Another leading cause of homelessness in New Jersey – evictions – was responsible for 14.3 percent of the cases. That total may be primed to spike as cash-tapped home renters struggle with the coronavirus pandemic, many experts have recently warned.
Other highlights from this year’s count included:
- 595 people identified as veterans, an 8 percent increase compared to 2019
- 943 people were from “youth households” (persons under the age of 25 not accompanied by an adult over the age of 24), a 3 percent increase compared to 2019
- 845 people identified as victims of domestic violence, a 5 percent increase as compared to 2019
“Unfortunately, the 2020 Point in Time Count showed an increase in the number of people identified as experiencing homelessness as compared to last year’s count” said Taiisa Kelly, CEO of Monarch Housing Associates.
“This is troubling news especially in the midst of a deadly global pandemic and national uprisings and conversations about racial equity,” Kelly said. “The increases in the Point in Time Count highlight the critical need for affordable housing and community-based supports, but also offers a glimmer of hope that we are on the right track to improving access and reaching more people experiencing homelessness that we may have missed in the past.”
ESSEX COUNTY LOCAL STATS
The overwhelming majority of Essex County’s homeless residents live in New Jersey’s largest city, researchers said.
In Newark, 1,859 people were counted this year, about 86 percent of the county’s total. The next-highest totals were found in East Orange (102 people), Irvington (87 people) and Montclair (72 people).
Over the past five years, Essex County has seen an overall increase of 435 counted people, or 24 percent, from 2016 to 2020.
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