Burlington County breaks ground on its first emergency shelter

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Burlington County officials said the county has needed an emergency shelter for decades. According to them, it is the only county in New Jersey of its size that doesn’t have a dedicated shelter.

The first steps toward erecting the county’s first emergency shelter were taken Wednesday, with officials breaking ground at the Human Service complex in Westampton.

The shelter will be a standalone two-story building that is more than 33,000 square feet. It will provide sleeping accommodations, warm meals, showers, laundry facilities and bathrooms for adult men and women experiencing a housing emergency. It will also have 24-hour security and a medical triage that is not expected to impact local emergency services.

County Commissioner Director Felicia Hopson, who has championed the emergency shelter since taking office in 2019, said she was watching the national trend on homelessness and wanted to address the issue in the county.

“We have a huge socioeconomic gap in Burlington County, so we’ve got to figure out a way to close the gap,” she said. “This homeless shelter is just one of the things that will help close that socioeconomic gap.”

According to the 2024 Point in Time Count conducted by Monarch Housing earlier this year, 1,005 people in the county were experiencing homelessness, an increase of 7% over the previous year and nearly double the count from 2022. According to the latest census figures, Burlington County’s population was 469,167. The count also identified that Black people were overrepresented in the homeless count at 55.8%, when compared to the county population of 19.3%.

The county previously launched its “Housing Hub” in 2019 to assist residents who have emergency housing needs or are experiencing homelessness. More than 2,800 people were served by the hub in 2023. Currently, a network of agencies and providers collaborate to get people experiencing homelessness or a housing emergency temporary shelter, according to Pastor Darlene Trappier, founder and executive director of Mt. Holly-based Beacon of Hope.

“We do have contracts where we’re able to put them in motel placements,” she said. “We’re able to provide the motel placements throughout the year until cold blue season starts.”

Trappier herself experienced homelessness when she was living in Los Angeles as a 19-year-old with a 5-month-old baby. Her mother took her public assistance check and gave her a half-hour to leave the house.

“I had a choice, I either could go to the park with him … or I go down to Skid Row,” she said.

She chose to go to the park, but said she appealed to God to take her out of her situation and “put me in a position where I can help others not feel what I can feel.”

For Trappier, the new county-run shelter is “a haven of hope” that she likens to one-stop shopping because of its proximity to the county’s Human Services building, which is across the parking lot from the site of the shelter.

“They can go there to get the services that they need, and come back over here,” she added. “It’s all encompassed together to meet not just a part of one person’s needs.”

The shelter is expected to be complete in approximately 16 to 20 months. It will cost more than $18 million. Nearly $6.5 million in federal and state grants will pay for the building.

Some residents have opposed the shelter, saying it will worsen homelessness. Hopson said that the shelter will help people and give them easy access to services that will help them.

“The reality is most homeless people are the ones at risk, not our residents,” she said. “It is my hope that they will find it in their hearts to understand why this is such a need and why we’ve selected this location.”