For the second winter in a row, an emergency shelter will be operating out of a privately-owned building in South Kearny.
This time around, though, a private firm which happens to own that building, will do the job … for much less money that it cost Hudson County to do it in-house.
The county freeholders will pay the non-profit Urban Renewal Corp. $277,838 “to operate a low barrier warming center for up to 75 homeless individuals to spend the night during the winter months” from Nov. 15, 2015, to March 31, 2016.
County Administrator Abraham Antun said the facility would be housed on the third floor of URC’s building at 53 S. Hackensack Ave., the former U.S. Naval Reserve Center, next to the county correctional facility.
URC was the sole provider to offer a proposal when bids were received on Sept. 24 and the contract was awarded Oct. 7, with options for up to five one-year extensions.
Jersey City Freeholder William O’Dea said the county should see “substantial savings” from its newest venture into aiding the homeless. “Last year was a nightmare for logistics reasons.”
Last year’s efforts by the county accounted for more than $500,000, according to Antun, who said that much of that cost accrued from overtime payments to off-duty county corrections officers to staff the facility and shuttle buses that picked up homeless from transportation hubs in Journal Square and Hoboken.
This time around, Antun said, URC will provide the driver and the county will supply the bus, which the county was gifted by the county Vocational Technical School. The county will also be providing food for the homeless through the kitchen at the county jail, he said.
Those being sheltered will have access to shower facilities and washers and dryers, he added.
A detailed breakdown of how URC would spend the money allotted was not readily available, but county spokesman James Kennelly said that URC “will have three case managers on each shift and two security personnel at the warming center.”
A “core component” of the program, Antun said, will involve participation by the Garden State Episcopal Community Development Corp., a Jersey City nonprofit, in interacting with the homeless contingent in referrals to various social services such as medical care, substance abuse, mental health counseling and job training.
URC’s website says the nonprofit has been providing a variety of essential social services to the “homeless and economically disadvantaged” in New Jersey for nearly 20 years.
“Currently URC maintains over 600 beds in nine facilities servicing emergency, transitional and permanent housing needs,” the website says, in addition to running a “computer education and recycling program” as a job market re-entry vehicle.
O’Dea said that URC operates three homeless shelters in Newark. “I visited one of them, just to kick the tires, and I thought it was a good operation,” he said.
A statement released by the county added that, “The warming center is designed to be a place of last resort for unsheltered individuals. All emergency shelter beds and overflow slots throughout Hudson County should be filled to the greatest extent possible prior to an individual being transported to the warming center.”
– Ron Leir
