with the lifting of new jersey's

eviction moratorium there are fears that

more people will become homeless we'll

soon learn if that's the case today mark

the annual statewide count of homeless

people in new jersey which is known as

the point in time survey even before the

final numbers are in due to the pandemic

alone advocates expect this year's count

will be higher melissa rose cooper

reports as part of our ongoing series

chasing the dream that focuses on

poverty justice and economic opportunity

two of you guys will go from one to five

you know from from six to ten for more

than 20 years brenda whittaker has been

doing what she can to fight the

homelessness problem in new jersey as a

director of housing resources for

homefront she's joining other members on

her team today at the budget inn here in

trenton knocking on doors to complete

the annual point in time

survey home front this is the one time a

year that the federal government

requests that we count everybody that is

homeless

sheltered and unsheltered and at risk

but they only count the people that are

living in motels that are paid for by

agencies or people living on the street

under the bridges in the parks and the

train station but we also provide

services to other people but this is the

one time of year that it really counts

because counting today will help us get

funding for the future last year's point

in time count found nearly 8 100 men

women and children across the state of

new jersey were homeless a number that's

expected to increase with the rise in

positive cova cases when i started at

home front there were lots of motels on

the route one quarter

we

had a goal of

getting people out of the motel into

shelter but with the wave of covert it

has almost reversed what we were doing

the numbers were really low in the

motels prior to covert now you know just

in this motel alone there are 40 rooms

with families and a lot of people are

doubled up so you know we're thinking

maybe close to 70 people in 40 rooms the

end to the state's eviction moratorium

earlier this month also a contributing

factor because there continues to be a

lack of affordable housing a struggle

all too familiar for james hill i went

out on like a colby league and my job is

never they supposed to have let me come

back and work and i don't know what

happened so you know i kind of just said

like like you know what forget it but

i'm about to go back to work though i

think i'm just go somewhere else he's

been living at the budget inn for the

past five months after he fell in hard

times and was evicted and thankful

homefront is here to help they through a

lot since i've been around here though

so you know what i mean they always out

here with doors i know what i mean

christmas they had bags and stuff for

the kids so you know

you know man they throwing their thing

home front members of homefront deliver

hot meals and groceries here three times

a week so they're hoping the survey will

lead to more funding so they can do even

more this is so important because you

know

the people in the community that

you know work and run the social service

agencies we know there is need in our

community there's no community i can

think of in new jersey or in the united

states basically that does not have a

social service needs we actually would

like to have in my agency alone we like

to have about 10 million dollars and we

would do many things with that funding

one being most important affordable

housing that is a big challenge in this

area you know we have people here you

know the government has been great with

giving vouchers and having programs but

housing is very scarce homefront also

has a shelter and some transitional

housing units to accommodate homeless

families whitaker says she hopes

everyone who can participate in the

survey does take part in it so

organizations across the state can

continue to help those who need it the

most for nj spotlight news i'm melissa

rose cooper

major funding for chasing the dream is

provided by the jpb foundation with

additional funding from the peter g

peterson and joan ganz cooney fund

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