NEWARK, N.J. (PIX11) -- A Code Blue emergency declaration adds another layer of urgency to the work being done by homeless outreach groups throughout the tri-state area.
On Thursday night, PIX11 New's Eileen Lehpamer rode along with workers from BRIDGES Outreach in Newark. Carew Smith and Dominique Alford spent several hours driving around in a van to areas they call "hot spots."
Those are locations where they know people are living in abandoned buildings or encampments.
The team handed out food, water, hygiene kits, and warming blankets. They repeatedly let people know that there was a "code blue" and asked if they wanted to come into a shelter for the night. All but one person refused.
A woman named Ashley said she would have gone if her significant other had been there at the time to go with her. Ashley tells PIX11 News, "Even if he can't be in the same shelter, I'd just like him to get the same opportunity too." The couple is staying in an abandoned structure near railroad tracks in Newark. There is no heat and no windows but she said, "We actually hook it up in there. It looks better in there than outside."
When Ashley was asked why she stays in that structure instead of a homeless shelter, she replied "Drugs man, sucks."
A man named Michael Marchak had walked into the Bridges Office on Halsey Street in Newark after completing rehab. The team called numerous shelters and found him one that had a bed. They raced him there before someone else called and took the bed. Marchak tells PIX 11 News he was "very worried because it's freezing outside, and I was walking the streets with my bags."
Richard Uniacke, the President of Bridges, said it often takes 100 encounters with the same person to get them to choose to leave the street and go into a shelter. As for a long-term solution, Uniacke tells PIX11 News "We need more deeply affordable housing, there's no two ways about it. Underlying this is a severe and affordable crisis and that's the only thing that solves homelessness."
You can learn more about the services offered by BRIDGES at https://www.bridgesoutreach.org/
