a shift in focus for those finding

housing for the homeless rather than

arranging temporary shelters one

organization is instead opting for

permanent homes Breanna vanozza reports

on help for those still chasing the

dream on a quiet tree-lined street in

affluent Morris County a new home is

officially ready for moving it's not the

McMansion you might expect for the area

but the latest in a wave of multi-family

affordable units for those struggling to

find permanent housing New Jersey is the

sixth most expensive state for renters

in the country and here in Morris County

every day eight households get evicted

from their apartments so that is just

driving demand to homeless programs as

rental costs continue to rise across the

state more than three percent in the

last year the number of evictions and

newly homeless families are - nonprofits

like homeless solutions are focusing

more resources on permanent stable

housing in tandem with shelters and

transitional units because Morris County

is so affluent that means the rents are

much higher so I think the average rent

for a two-bedroom apartment now is close

to two thousand dollars especially in

Morristown and for most the families

that we see they don't even earn that

much in a month

in fact in New Jersey the fair market

rent for a two-bedroom apartment is just

over fourteen hundred a month which

means you'd have to make more than 58

thousand dollars a year or at least $28

an hour in order to not spend more than

30% of your income on housing costs but

according to a new report by the

national Low Income Housing Coalition

the average New Jersey renter makes just

over $18 an hour there's just no way

that they would be able to pay a market

rent so they get stuck in this vicious

cycle where they're just bouncing from

shelter to shelter to shelter sleeping

on floors and they never have that sense

of security so we want to put people

take them off the street and put them

into permanent housing where

they may succeed with the against

security and comfort of having those

four walls and a key to a door that's

there's homeless solutions has already

completed eighty six units around the

county this bottom unit of the home in

Morristown will house a single mother

and her children fleeing a domestic

violence situation all of the housing is

placed in walkable communities close to

resources and other wraparound services

it's a daily challenge trying to make

sure people who work in Morristown in

the Morristown area can find affordable

housing in terms of homeownership or

rental housing there are two more

projects in the works in this

neighborhood alone once they're complete

around this time next year they'll have

roughly fourteen family units and while

county officials say that's a start no

sooner are they built more families are

in need in Morristown Briana the nosy

NJTV news

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