Pushing To Get Homeless Out Of Tents

MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. - More people are living in tents as the homeless situation spirals out of control.

Fox 29's Steve Keeley was live Tuesday morning in Mount Holly where some homeless advocates are going to Trenton on Tuesday hoping to get support from lawmakers.

One of the last places where some of the homeless are able to find help is The Extended Hand Ministries, run by Bishop Barbara Davis at the Christian Community Center of Mount Holly Inc.

Davis was set to lead the advocates, volunteers and homeless themselves in the march to the statehouse with a permit in place.

They hope to get some attention and eventually some funding for what they say is an urgently needed homeless shelter there and in a few other areas, too, as more people lose their homes and jobs.

Most have nowhere to go and are setting up shacks and tents in wooded areas or any available space.

Last month, Fox 29 News profiled one such place Camden, where the homeless have been living in tents and shanty-town-type shacks.

Then, a 53-year-old woman named Dorothy Ferguson was living with her husband, John, died April 29 in a similar wooded campsite just off Route 38 and the New Jersey Turnpike in Westhampton.

They were two of the 1,000 people in Burlington County camps that authorities have been going around breaking up and shooing from town to town, Keeley reported.

Ferguson's husband is now staying in the very small and cramped Extended Hand Ministries office.

Davis, who runs the office and lives there herself, said Evesham police recently dropped off a homeless person because they couldn't have that kind of person hanging around in their town.

It's the growing number of stories like these and the potentially growing number of deaths that have the homeless groups heading to Trenton, hoping to find compassion and funding for the homeless, no matter how hard public funding is to come by.

As one advocate said, we can't just stand around while poor, homeless people are dying around us in the nearest woods or off-ramps near our homes, Keeley reported.