TOMS RIVER, N.J. – Mayor Dan Rodrick confirmed this week that Toms River has successfully cleared its homeless camps and tent cities, working with state officials to implement short-term and long-term solutions for the township’s homeless population.
“Nobody should be sleeping out in the cold in Toms River this holiday season,” Mayor Rodrick said.
Rodrick emphasized that the effort provided immediate housing assistance and addressed what he referred to as the “industrial homeless complex,” a state and federal system that benefits financially from keeping individuals in shelters rather than helping them achieve stability.
“As long as these people are homeless and in the care of these organizations, the organizations keep getting paid by the government,” Rodrick said. “We wanted a solution that gives these folks a chance to get back on their feet, put a roof over their head, and get the help they need, whether that’s financial or medical.”
Rodrick noted that all of the camp residents were provided with state-funded accommodations outside of Toms River.
Rodrick thanked local and state agencies for collaborating to find housing accommodations for Toms River’s homeless population. He criticized organizations that receive funding “per head,” claiming that this model incentivizes groups to “import” homeless individuals from across the state into Toms River to inflate their numbers.
“Homelessness is a local, state, and national problem, but programs and funding are available on the state and national level,” Rodrick said. “Toms River residents should not be forced to foot the bill when homeless people from around the state were being imported by groups seeking to increase headcount for funding. We were getting homeless people from all over the state in these camps.”
According to state data, New Jersey has received $59.2 million in federal funding to combat homelessness. The state has taken multiple actions to address the crisis, including distributing $1.3 billion in emergency rental assistance, preventing over 90,000 evictions, and piloting diversion programs that help households avoid homelessness at an average cost of $650 per exit. Other initiatives include emergency hotel and motel placements and a $30 million program to end veterans’ homelessness.
Rodrick said that his administration worked to ensure the homeless individuals in Toms River received the state and federal services available to them.
“There is all that money out there for these folks by the federal and state government,” he said. “We made sure these people got the services they are qualified for under those programs.”
President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk echoed Rodrick’s concerns about systemic incentives this week, stating, “You pay organizations according to the number of homeless people they ‘manage,’ you create an incentive to maximize the number of homeless people, which is exactly what happened here.”
While Toms River has cleared its homeless camps, Rodrick maintains that a sustainable solution requires continued oversight to ensure that solutions that help people, in addition to state or federal funding, prioritize outcomes over headcounts.