Data on Homelessness in New Jersey
New Jersey Point-in-Time Count of the Homeless
The Point-in-Time (PIT) count is a count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. This annual count includes people experiencing homelessness who are currently in emergency shelter and transitional housing, as well as people who are unsheltered.
Despite our concerns about the accuracy of this data generally, and particularly over the past two years because of the difficulty of compiling it due to the pandemic, we’re sharing this because it’s the best measure we have available. Please note that in particular, we believe the number of unsheltered homeless is a significant undercount. The data gathered and reported on below is taken from Monarch Housing Associates. For complete details on the PIT, please visit their website: https://monarchhousing.org/nj-counts/
Key Findings:
-
On the night of January 25th, 2022, a total of 6,631 households, including 8,754 persons, were experiencing homelessness in the State of New Jersey, according to the 2022 Point-In-Time Count.
-
Of the 6,631 homeless households counted in New Jersey in 2022, 988 (15%) were families with at least one child under the age of 18 and one adult.
-
A total of 1,750 persons were identified as chronically homeless.
-
978 persons were unsheltered on the night of the count.
-
Homeless Youth (individuals and families with heads of households 24 years old or younger) represented 8.9% of the counted homeless population with 780 persons identified.
.
The Stewart B. McKinney-Vento Education of Homeless Children and Youth (McKinney-Vento EHCY) program provides homeless students with protections and services to ensure they enroll in and attend school; complete their high school education and be positioned for success after graduation, so they may avoid poverty and homelessness as adults. They define homelessness more broadly than the HUD definition and include students who are living in doubled-up households. The data below is taken from a November 2022 report from the National Center for Homeless Education. For more details see: https://nche.ed.gov/data-and-stats/
*Note: The homeless student count is always a significant undercount because students and their families tend to keep their homelessness hidden from school officials. Please note that these statistics during the beginning of the Covid period were skewed heavily by the fact that schools were not in person. There is no reason to believe that the number of homeless children went down in 2021.
Out of Reach Report
Every year, the National Low Income Housing Coalition reports on the Housing Wage (the hourly wage a full-time worker must earn to afford a modest and safe rental home without spending more than 30 percent of his or her income on housing costs) for all states and counties in the country. The report highlights the gap between what renters earn and what it costs to afford a home at FMR. This year’s report shows NJ stuck as the sixth most expensive place to rent and housing advocates are urging state leaders not to divert funds needs to create affordable homes.
Many thanks to the Housing and Community Development Network for their work on this report. Please visit their website to learn more about the important work the Network is focusing on in 2023: https://www.hcdnnj.org/