Project Homelessness Connect Counts Freehold Area Homeless

Hundreds of Freehold residents came out to be counted among the homeless at Project Homelessness Connect yesterday at the New Beginnings Agape Christian Center on Throckmorton Street.

More than 200 people, an overwhelming majority of whom were Latino men, completed surveys detailing their housing situations for the Department of Social Services before receiving medical screenings, winter coats, blankets, and socks, and coffee and donuts.

The APP reports:

An apparent focus Wednesday was on people living in overcrowded conditions — eight, 10 or 12 individuals in a small apartment.

"Though they're not sleeping out in the elements, it is substandard housing," said Peggy Comfort, who coordinated the site at the Freehold church and who is executive director of Manna House in Cliffwood Beach and acting director of Spring House in Eatontown, both transition housing complexes for homeless women and children. "It is not adequate and we need to document it to get funds for subsidized housing."

Winter coats donated by Burlington Coat Factory in Brick and by Holiday Express were given out along with scarves, hats, toiletries, food, and help from legal and work employment service providers.

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