federal numbers indicate there are fewer

homeless people in Camden County but

those numbers could be deceptive senior

correspondent David Cruz takes a closer

look at people who face the daily

struggles of life on the streets still

chasing the dream

this is Camden nowadays all

groundbreakings and ribbon-cuttings but

this is Camden to poverty and

homelessness and the dangers they bring

some was going to go good cup of coffee

one pants Dunkin Donuts go to crown what

buckley is 63 this is the second time

he's been jumped on the streets the last

time was in March when he says someone

beat him up and took all his money while

he was in the hospital his apartment was

flooded they read target now according

to the annual point and time count of

the homeless the population in Camden

County has held steady and is trending

downward from 675 in 2014 with 68 out on

the street down to 525 this year with 84

people actually out on the street but

those numbers only scratched the surface

says Chantel Garner who coordinates the

annual count in Camden County we're

seeing more people but it's HUDs

definition of what's being counted to

show that we have a decrease in numbers

HUD is looking for the chronically

homeless which means you've been on the

street for 12 consecutive months of more

or four times in a three year period to

total 12 months and if you become

homeless today or tomorrow but isn't

counting those numbers and that's a lot

of the numbers that we have as well as

the people that are couchsurfing which

is as it sounds someone crashing at a

friends or families garner estimates

that if you count those people the

number could be as much as four times

that including at least a thousand

children on a list kept by social

workers at the school's fine place to

live

I haven't tried it yet Harold Hagen is

48 four days out of prison from a parole

violation he's here a Cathedral kitchen

where the county has set up a homeless

service day looking for some clothes and

a meal and maybe a lead on a shelter but

mostly he welcomes the opportunity to be

around other people a break from the

solitude of his everyday life feel alone

yeah I feel like I feel like no one

cares I think like if I got hit by a bus

and killed I don't think anybody would

even care I lost my mother my brother my

brother pretty close together I want to

go in to our houses don't have to be

away picking friends just something I

have to be doing something wrong not to

get a house or something I don't know

what I just need help like this I don't

know what I don't know what I'm doing

wrong this sign directs visitors to war

different attractions they're about a

mile and a half away from Joseph's house

a shelter where the beds are full every

day and waterfront attractions may as

well be a hundred miles away in Camden

I'm David Cruz NJTV news

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