Thread: Immigrants joining the ranks of NJ's homeless

Immigrants joining the ranks of NJ's homeless
The Associated Press

Friday, August 1st 2008, 12:04 PM

LAKEWOOD, N.J. — The national immigration debate has reached people on the farthest margins of society in New Jersey.

In long-term encampments from the woods of southern New Jersey to the congested northern end of the state, an increasing number of immigrant day laborers are joining the ranks of the homeless.

In northern New Jersey, more than 100 homeless immigrant day laborers were found to be camping out in a North Bergen graveyard.

Authorities cleared out a homeless encampment beneath a highway overpass in Passaic that was divided into sections labeled "USA" and "Mexico."

In Lakewood, near the Jersey shore, authorities recently removed occupants of two homeless tent cities — known locally as "the people in the woods."

The camps were set up next to each other — one primarily a "local" camp and another populated by Mexican day laborers.

David Jones, a Lakewood native who lived in the local camp for years, said officials mostly left them alone until the immigrant camp sprung up.

"My personal feeling is that they attacked the Mexican site first to try and knock the homeless population down," he said.

Jill Perez, director of the Ocean County Human Services Department, said the presence of undocumented immigrants had nothing to do with the crackdown.

She said the camps were targeted because they posed a public health hazard by their location alongside a public watershed.

"We didn't ask who was or wasn't legal, we didn't make people provide any kind of status information — we were willing to hook anyone up with services that requested them," Perez said.

Jones said despite the unwanted attention he felt the immigrant homeless may have brought to the camps, there was little resentment among the local homeless.

He said he and other local homeless people marveled at the Mexican camp because it had a chicken coop for fresh eggs, a communal outdoor kitchen fueled by propane gas, and large garden full of fresh vegetables, including tall stalks of corn.

A statement issued by Ocean County Administrator Alan W. Avery Jr. said two camps were removed from the woods because of ongoing criminal activity, including drug offenses and assaults.

Living conditions in the camps caused environmental degradation of park property and surrounding land and waterways, and posed a public health risk, he said.

Social workers, health department officials, mental health counselors and other advocates had been trying to get the homeless living in the woods to accept services and relocate to shelters, Avery said.
http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/2008/ ... _home.html

The camps were set up next to each other — one primarily a "local" camp and another populated by Mexican day laborers.

Oh please.....lets open the border and get more here! We NEED them! What's wrong with these LAZY people.....according to what the illegals said, there's PLENTY of jobs out there....remember? Our homeless were all just lazy. I hope they choke on every word they said.