New Jersey’s ‘Tent City’ for the homeless is going under

About 60 miles south of Manhattan in the wilds of Lakewood, New Jersey lies a makeshift encampment for the state's homeless dubbed Tent City. Started by Libertarian minister Steve Brigham in 2005, it's been home to an average of 100 down-on-their-luck individuals each year. That is, until now—Tent City is getting ready to close for good. Homelessness, though, doesn't show any signs of stopping.

Vice profiled Tent City this week, calling it the "suburban version of rock bottom." This winter has been especially hard for residents, with the season's savage snowstorms whittling down the population to about 60 residents due to extreme cold and snow. Brigham, for his part, expects that this winter will be the last Tent City ever sees.

Primarily, that's because last year Brigham and his resident's reached a deal with the township to close the camp in exchange for the local government providing one year of free housing for Tent City residents. However, even though Tent City is coming to an end, the state's homeless are still showing up for a place to stay, only to be turned away by police. The camp, in fact, is closed to new residents, and some residents already there have no plans to vacate.

Brigham has been serving New Jersey's homeless for about 14 years, ultimately consolidating a number of homeless camps (in Camden, Bristol Township, and elsewhere) into Lakewood's Tent City. The local municipality, however, has not taken kindly to the notion from the beginning. As Vice's Samantha Melamed writes:

"He lived in a donated school bus until the town towed and scrapped it, in one of many escalating events leading up to the encampment's dissolution. There've been tickets issued, threats of fines, police raids, and what residents describe as ongoing harassment. Still, one of the more remarkable things about Tent City is that it wasn't bulldozed summarily, as so many others around the country have been. 'They didn't dare,' Brigham says. He credits a friendly local newspaper columnist, the Asbury Park Press's late Bill Handelman, with stirring public sentiment in his favor."

The favor, however, could not outweigh the escalation, and the execution of the consent order is looming. But as Tent City vanishes from New Jersey's woods, it's clear that the homeless will stay around—or, at least he ones who didn't get a year of free housing.

And, at that point, we'll be right back where we started in the first place.

[Vice]