Nonprofit leaders, academics and people who have experienced homelessness gathered recently at Princeton University to urge the state to provide more immediate mental health services for children and adults living in shelters throughout New Jersey. The event came after two recent reports highlighting the need for more timely mental health services for these populations within the state’s shelter system.
Over 12,600 people in New Jersey were homeless on a single night in late January, according to NJ Counts 2024, the state’s annual point-in-time count of people experiencing homelessness. On the night of the count, 9,525 homeless people stayed in emergency shelters, according to the report. The 2024 count also indicates a 24% increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness in the state compared to last year.
Both parents and shelter staff are frustrated with the barriers and lack of practical awareness of the “incredibly challenging” and complicated lives of homeless people within the current system, such as with transportation, which can make it difficult to attend off-site appointments, the report says. These barriers prevent many children from accessing the mental health care they need to deal with trauma and adverse childhood experiences associated with homelessness. The report by the New York-based Institute for Children, Poverty & Homelessness was developed at the request of the New Jersey Coalition to End Homelessness.
Advocates for homeless people, including Mary Gay Abbott-Young, say that having meetings between behavioral health providers and the “homeless emergency system” is one of the next steps in addressing these issues now that the reports are out.
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