finally tonight tucked behind the Garden State Parkway just off the winding River Park in Tom's river is a place about 20 people are calling home it's a tent camp set up with the help of a homelessness advocacy group in Ocean County it's a temporary shelter for displaced residents who say they don't feel safe living in the other few options available in an area of the state that remains the only County without a full-time Housing Shelter Ted Goldberg has the story potted yesterday we got our hanging plants Melissa McLean is one of about 20 people living in this encampment in the woods Ocean County doesn't have a full-time homeless shelter so people like her are making the best of it there are you know a few you know things from civilization if you will that we miss like running water but um you know our tents we have 10 man tents so there's plenty of room to to spread out in we all decorate our tents I pictures of my grandkids I've learned to adapt more you know I never thought I would go camping after seeing all those Friday the 13th movies these tents are on the backside of winding River Park in Tom's River far away from the vast majority of bikers and hikers the people here have electricity from a generator and heat from propane but they're far from essential Services it's like a mile and a half to the nearest store so that's like a 3 m commitment round trip if you're walking that takes a while mle has been dealing with homelessness for about 3 years and says it's been incredibly difficult to find a home for herself and Susie nearly impossible on Long waiting lists and I'm talking about 7year waiting lists and um you know there's just very few options out there um I probably could find a senior place you know a senior housing because I'm 64 but even those have their waiting lists are years long even if you find a place you have to come up with a security deposit you know and then most of us don't have that kind of well if we had that kind of money we wouldn't be out here mcan's health problems have made it hard to find a full-time job and so has her lack of address I even had an appointment at a hairdresser where they asked me my address and I didn't know what to say because I was kind of compounded by the question there might not be any discrimination against homeless but there is there's a lot of discrimination against the homeless so somebody sees that the person is homeless when they're applying for a job it's a good possibility they won't get that job Steven Brigham is the minister at Lakewood Outreach Ministry Church and brings donated supplies here when he can this is the mess area the what we call the food area you know where people cook their food and come over here and there's food in this tent here he says he scouted this area about a year and a half ago for a man dealing with homelessness who had nowhere to go I looked around and I found this area which seemed to be conducive it was not around any schools not around any developments or anything like that Brigham isn't the only Advocate to help these folks out Paul hul leads just believe Inc and he says his group has helped find housing for about 20 people at this encampment is not a really a permanent solution because you're on public land I feel bad for those that are out there because they don't they're not there for that reason they're there because they don't have any else in their mindset they don't have anywhere else to work towards or who's going to help them while Ocean County doesn't have a full-time shelter it has a code blue shelter for days below 35° and a homelessness trust fund set up last year has raised more than $107,000 for services by adding a $5 charge for documents processed by the county clerk's office hul has ideas for how to spend that using it to establish rents or payback rents or they're using it to do security posit first month rents with low barrier meaning there's a lot of red tape with that funding you know that's going to help a lot of folks that we can get over that hump the county recently set up a task force to decide where that money goes they tell me the task force is figuring out its bylaws and then scheduling meetings in Toms River I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight news [Music]