AREA — Documented homelessness rates have more than doubled in Union County over the course of the past five years. And while county officials and local social- services groups are working to combat the issue through outreach programs and other initiatives, the already overburdened system is struggling to keep up ahead of demand.

Each year, every county in New Jersey participates in an initiative known as the Point In Time (PIT) survey, which attempts to count the number of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. Throughout the course of the event, county officials partner with law enforcement officers and volunteers to visit homeless shelters, overpasses, parks, Code Blue warming centers and other locations throughout the region to try to get a better sense of how many residents are currently living in the county without proper housing.

“It’s a snapshot,” said Union County Commissioner Board Chair Lourdes Leon. “It doesn’t give us everything that we need, but it gives us a place to start.”

In 2019, the county reported that 438 people from 298 households were experiencing homelessness on the night of the PIT count. Of those individuals, 68 were listed as “chronic” cases who had been without consistent shelter for at least a year.

“Homelessness is not a new problem for this area,” said Geleen Donovan, executive director of Family Promise Union County. “We have never had enough housing to fully support our entire population. Sadly, it’s a cyclical issue. When someone gets evicted from a home or an apartment, someone else gets the chance to move into it. There has always been a pattern.”

But that pattern, along with dozens of others, experienced a dramatic shift the following year when everything shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It changed everything,” Ms. Donovan said, adding that temporary eviction moratoriums proved to be something of a mixed blessing.

“People who already had housing when the moratoriums went into effect were secure, which was great, but that also meant that the cycle was broken. Anyone who was experiencing homelessness at the start of the pandemic had a much harder time finding housing than they would have at any other time in recent history. There just wasn’t anywhere for people to go.” she said.

As a result, homeless shelters across the country began to see an influx of long-term residents that they were not financially prepared to support.

“It was a very unintended consequence, but the moratoriums created a backlog,” Ms. Donovan said. “We still haven’t recovered from it.”

And while the data collected during Point In Time may provide more of a glimpse into homelessness than a comprehensive overview, recent trends indicate that the local situation is growing more serious every year.

In 2020, the survey identified 484 homeless individuals from 349 households. By 2022, those numbers had jumped to 677 people from 418 households, and by 2024, Union County reported 1,026 homeless individuals from 681 households on the night of the count.

“We know that the PIT doesn’t show the whole picture, but these numbers are frightening,” Union County Commissioner Sergio Granados said. “We have adapted the way that we do the count every year — we send out more groups and we go to more locations than we used to, so we know that part of this increase can be attributed to the fact that we’re simply collecting more data. But the reality of the situation is that things are getting complicated.”

Pandemic-related challenges, though relevant, are not the only mitigating factor for Union County residents who may be experiencing homelessness.

According to census data, the median gross monthly rent in New Jersey was $1,376 in 2019. As of January 31 of this year, however, that number had jumped to $2,529.

“People are losing their safety nets,” said Debbie Ann Anderson, director of the county’s Department of Human Services. “They are working two, sometimes three jobs just to pay rent and stay ahead of collections. We hear from people every day who tell us that they are maybe one paycheck away from getting evicted.”

The county, alongside partner organizations like Family Promise, offer multiple resources like case management, job training, family and senior services and rental assistance to ensure that residents have the best possible chance to succeed.

But, Mr. Granados said, new federal immigration policies and reports of mass deportations have kept many residents, both here in Union County and across the country, from accessing certain essential resources.

“There is a church here in Elizabeth [that provides a food pantry],” Mr. Granados said. “If you drove by there on a Friday morning last year, you would see a line of people waiting around the block to get into the food pantry. It was easily over 150200 people every week. Now, you go past that same spot and there are about three or four people standing there. It’s not that the need has suddenly decreased over the span of a month. People are just too scared to leave their homes.”

Ms. Leon confirmed that attendance at this year’s PIT resource fair was “much lower” than it has been in years past.

“This is a nerve-wracking time for anyone who does not speak the language,” she said. “It’s not just undocumented residents who are staying away.”

In other words, she said, data from this year’s PIT may make it appear as though homelessness is decreasing in the area rather than steadily increasing as it has been for at least the past five years.

“We want people to know that we are here to help,” Ms. Leon said. “If you are struggling, if you need assistance — call us. If we can’t get you the help that you need, we can point you in the direction of someone who can.”

For more information, or to seek assistance from the Union County Department of Human Services, visit: https://ucnj.org/dhs/.