[LETTER: PAGE 1, PAGE 2, PAGE 3] Thomas O’Malley, a local resident, tells TLS he has a solution for cleaning up Tent City once and for all, and at no expense to the taxpayers.
Following last week’s meeting, O’Malley contacted TLS with his proposal he said many officials have seen and were fond of.
The propsal, says O’Malley, would actually save taxpayers money.
The idea O’malley has, is for the County to either build or refurbish a building in Industrial Park, which would “no doubt” be supported by volunteer groups.
The shelter, away from the center of Lakewood, would offer an interim residency, and the homeless with more serious problems, would be referred to Social Services.
“I know of no other propsoal that satisfies all concerned parties involved and which would eliminate the on-going legal fees as well as the negative publicity associated with Lakewood in this matter”, O”malley says.
O’malley ends by saying it would be his honor to serve all parties involved in order to bring closure to the problem. TLS.
who pays for the building? taxpayers!!!!
There is absolutely no reason for Lakewood to be the location for a shelter that would house these homeless individuals who are almost all from outside of Lakewood and in many cases even from out of state. the presence of a shelter in industrial park will make it unattractive for business growth and investment.These individuals many who have documented mental and drug issues and some of whom are registered offenders will be a danger not only to our schoolchildren in the industrial park, but to the rest of Lakewood as well. I sugest that this letter writer host these individuals in his backyard instead. The real solution is to work with existing facilities throughout the state to place these individuals in suitable facilities and subject them to an environment where they will be persuaded to overcome their drug and alchohol dependencies and trained to reenter the workforce using existing programs that are equiped to deal with these unfortunate individuals. (In fact, these individuals were all offered housing and social services help but declined due to the behavior requirements this would entail as opposed to the current lawless and free lifestyle those who “help” these people are currently enabling.) Please don’t use the current problem of tent city as a platform to advocate something which will cause an even bigger problem for all of our families and businesses in Lakewood for many years to come.
Industrial park doesn’t need them.
Meir Lichtenstein said that each one of these people were offered a place but refused it. So we don’t need them either…….
I might be wrong but I think that there can’t be any sleeping in industrial park. That’s why there’s no dormitory buildings there although there are many yeshivas.
Commenet #2 anon – your on the mark, and put down well
The reason we have a tent city issue is because the Township committee failed to address the issue 5 years ago when it first became a problem and allowed it to grow out of control.
You have got to be kidding!! Where in the Industrial Park will you put it? There is a School on every block, do you want these people around our children???
Anon, u r on the ball! There is no reason any taxpayer should have to pay for them to be relocated in a place they don’t belong!
The state should cover them. They are mostly ill, they need institutionalized help. One thing forsure, Lakewood does not have the resources to help them. They must leave. Asap!
i wonder how many ppl would it take to fall into a blazing fire there to call the place a hazard
thats a good enough of a reason to relocate these
btw i feel realy bad for that guy…… nebach…
They should be arrested for trespassing and sent to a locked facility until they are processed as to where they belong – either in drug rehab or a mental institution or to a legal residence, whether an apartment that they rent, or to relatives who’ll take them in or they should go back to where they originally came from if from out of state.
You must be kidding? Between all the schools and dont forget the new housing developments going up around the outskirts of the industrial park, this is no better of an idea than just allowing them to stay where they already planted themselves.
YOu have to be really mentally ill to be outdoors in a tent on a night like this with 65 mph winds and heavy rains. Time for everyone to be moved out. It could only get worse.
there should be no schools in the park and I think this is a great thing to do , the schools dont pay either tax payers do.
I OWN A COMPANY IN INDUSTRIAL PARK AND THE LAST THING I WOULD WANT IS A HOMELESS SHELTER THERE.
Whens the next meeting with officials we need to keep the heat up on them.not that thery should have one meeting with us to vent and nothing gets done. We need action asap!!!!
Oh let’s put these ill people next to our children- there are many schools on that block!
While Mr. O’Malley clearly has the right intentions, he could not have possibly looked into Industrial Park and decided it was a good location “away from the center of Lakewood.”
Yeshiva with dorms, girls schools. etc…
Simple solution… Those of you who support tent city can all come down to Tent City and pick you own squatter (or two ore three) and have them set up a mini tent city in each of your yards. YOU can support them by paying for garbage pick up, YOU can clean up after them, bring them supplies, look the other way when they are drunk and/or high in YOUR yard or wandering into your tax paying neighbors yard. YOU can deal with the (most probable cancer-causing) smoke from fires using anything they can find to burn as it fills your homes and lungs as well as your innocent neighbors homes and lungs.
However, I don’t want to hear any complaints when they destroy your yard and neighborhood and leave their alcohol bottles and drug paraphenillia around the property for your kids to stumble upon. Oh, and when someone is injured YOUR homeowners insurance can pay. Or maybe they can sue YOU since they are on your property.
After all, I am sure you can handle those of the bunch who may even be mentally ill.
Please try to remember… they all have the opportunity to have housing. THEY chose not to accept the simple terms that could help them get their lives back on track.
I truely wish them all the best. I pray for them and realize how lucky me and my family are, but they do not belong there.
Don’t you all understand? There is a court order preventing the township to ‘just get rid of them’.
Lakewood has the highest population of young children. do these ppl really need to be in Lakewood.
homeless shelters should be small & scattered all over the place.
Genius! close down the Industrial Park, make homeless shelters, muster zones and schools there. That will leave more room for townhouses, and we know the taxes from the townhouses will make up for all the losses from real businesses in the park. Brilliant. With this kind of progressive thinking and planning, we could soon be well on our way to…
Why is Lakewood responsible for the homeless of Ocean County? And I agree with the poster above that said the township committee dropped the ball on this/ Had they cracked down on this when the tent city intially opened, we would not be in the legal predicament we are in today.
Nix industrial park idea.
Take an older motel in NJ shore and work with each person one by one.
We can’t pay for everything for these people forever otherwise it’ll bloat in the thousands ( and don’t think it can’t) the shelter shall be temporary unfortunately paid by the taxpayers.
BUT INDUSTRIAL PARK? NO WAY!
but its funny almost sad to watch a township committee who’s busy with award ceremonies and plaques almost every other day hasn’t breathed a word about this.
At least place a fence around the place and only let in those that with a county ID card.
70 years ago this conversation was going on in Germany. Look at what happened. People, these are human beings you’re talking about. Let’s speak with our hearts and treat them as we would like to be treated. How quickly we forget. Put them here, no put them there, we don’t want them near our children, we don’t want them near our businesses, we don’t want them near us. Get rid of them, lets find a solution and get these vermin away from us. Is this how we’re taught we treat our fellow human beings?
Schools are just as bad for buisines in industrial park. Schools are not an industry, they do not belong in the park to begin with.
I dont think there should be a homeless shelter or schools in an industrial park….just my opinion
Again, this is simple so pay attention. The courts have said the Township and the County must provide a plan to shelter the homeless before tent city can go away. The court is not going to budge on its humanitarian position. There is no money to build a shelter unless you want your taxes raised. The money will not come from the State or the Federal government, they are broke. So go to your local officials and demand that they comply with the court’s edict and don’t complain when your taxes are raised.
“Are there no prisons? Are there no work houses”-Ebeneezer Scrooge
What a dumb idea. There are businesses and schools in the Industrial Park, making it off-limits for a facility such as this.
Can you imagine allowing people with drugs, alcohol, and mental illness being cared for in the industrial park. What is next?
The issue of mentally ill and addicted people, that roam freely among us cannot continue, because it strips residents of our quality of life. There is no doubt that the homeless need help, but they and their advocates cannot dictate the type of help needed.
It is time for mental health professionals to evaluate each of the homeless people, and make determination as to how, where, and when treatment can begin. The woods is not an acceptable solution.
No more of the “There is nothing we can do” attitude from the Township Committee. Now is the time to act.
agreed with BILL! u said it!! #21
Bill, It was a bad Idea to put schools in the industrial park along side of companies using hazardous materials but no one raised a stink about it (pun intended). At least they would be in a place that could be monitored and regulated. Again there is the money factor. Who will pay for whatever care comes about. Remember, there were mental facilities, Marlboro, Freehold, and Brisbane to name a few, all closed down to save the State money, and the people released found their way to places such as Asbury, Ocean Grove,and Lakewood.
#22 Are not the tent city populace mainly comprised of different parts criminal, and/or severe drug or emotional issues? Do you actually think that it is to their benefit to stay living unsafe without treatment and outdoors? Would you want them next door to you prior to getting help? Would they not be treated wonderfully by the US GOV with food housing medical needs etc.. if a plan would come to fruition? Is anyone trying to kill them?
HOW DARE YOU compare what the germans and their accomplices Yimach Shimo did to us .Killing and torturing and stealing from kedoshim and for that matter many innocent non-Jews to what people want to do about tent city inhabitants. You also disgustingly refer us as wanting to get rid of vermin just as the nazis said repeatedly about us.
If anyone forgot anything its you.
I suggest that you say a Tehilim in memory of the kedoshim and as a Zechus for the living Kedoshim as a form of mechila for trivializing them and insulting us by comparing what happened to them even in the same sentence as to the true problem of the tent city situation.As for myself whose father survived the horrors I am Mochel you .
I’m embrassed by the lack of humanity. There but for the grace of God go any of us. Are you so self centered to think than this could one day be any of us. Let us help our brothers not stone them. I ask God to forgive us all for our trespasses on the lesser of us. Remember the far past. We should not condemn our brothers.
Can’t believe they are cutting trees down.
NJ needs to take the bull by the horns on this. If we wait for citys to setup shelters, like in AC, other towns ship em off over crowding them. There should be dorm style shelters, and combine the unemployment office, affordable housing offices, social workers all in the same location. So everything needed to help these people is in one spot. And people who have homes who are on unemployment can see what happends if they don’t take looking for a job seriously.
I like camping, and I know I can’t just setup a tent anywhere in the state, let alone have open fires in the pine forests that are not setup for occupation. Or just cut trees down .