LAKEWOOD, N.J. – Mayor Ray Coles has asked Lakewood police to investigate complaints about a group gathering near Lake Carasaljo, bringing a familiar issue back before township officials: where homeless people can go when residents object to their presence in public spaces.
A resident complained that people with shopping carts were gathering around a bench at the lake, making noise and allegedly using the area for bodily functions in a letter to the mayor via The Lakewood Scoop.
The writer said the activity was making families and children uncomfortable and also complained that lights along the walking path were not working.
Coles’ response was short.
“I asked the police department to investigate this,” the mayor said.
The complaint bears similarities to one of the more controversial chapters in Lakewood history — a years-long fight over homelessness that has moved from a sprawling encampment in the woods to downtown streets, parks and other public spaces.
Lakewood Once Cut Down Trees Where Homeless People Gathered
Four years ago, the debate centered on Lakewood Town Square.
During the summer of 2022, homeless people were gathering beneath mature trees in the downtown square for shade. Township officials were receiving complaints about public urination, defecation and other behavior around the property.
Lakewood’s response drew statewide attention.
The township cut down the trees.
Coles said at the time that Lakewood’s quality-of-life task force recommended removing them to make the square less comfortable for people who were effectively living there. Homeless advocates accused the township of deliberately eliminating shade during summer heat rather than addressing the underlying problem.
When some of the displaced people moved across the street to a wooded area near a public parking lot, more trees came down.
Shore News Network reported at the time that Lakewood continued removing trees as homeless residents relocated.
Minister Steve Brigham, who had spent years working with Lakewood’s homeless population, was furious.
“Lakewood cut down all the trees and took away all the benches and tables in the Town Square to deter the homeless from going there,” Brigham said in 2022.
The township defended its actions amid complaints from residents, businesses and municipal employees.
The physical transformation of that property didn’t stop with the trees.
Last month, Shore News Network reported that the former Lakewood Town Square was being converted into municipal parking, with nearly 30 parking spaces being striped across much of what had once been a shaded downtown gathering place.
Now, four years after the Town Square controversy, another complaint about people gathering in a Lakewood public space has landed on Coles’ desk.
This time it’s the lake.
When they are cleared out of the Lake area, where will they go next. The homeless crisis started with a camp in the woods. That camp was raized, so they went to the town square. When the trees were cut down, it wasn’t enough, so it was turned into a parking lot. Now, they have sought refuge within the woods around the Lake.
Lakewood, a community known for its compassion, generosity, and philanthropy, continues to choose displacement over solutions to its growing homeless crisis.
Before Downtown, There Was Lakewood’s Tent City
Lakewood’s struggle over homelessness goes back much further than 2022.
For years, a wooded property in the township was home to one of New Jersey’s most notorious homeless encampments.
Known simply as Tent City, the camp grew under the leadership of Brigham, a minister and homeless advocate who helped organize a community for people who had nowhere else to live. At its height, more than 100 people were reported to be living there.
It wasn’t merely a scattering of tents.
Residents developed their own rules and community structure. The encampment had a kitchen, common areas, showers and a chapel, with Brigham living among the residents and overseeing much of the operation.
Lakewood wanted the camp gone.
Township officials cited fires, crime and dangerous living conditions while Brigham argued that closing the camp without permanent alternatives simply moved homelessness somewhere else.
The dispute eventually landed in court.
A settlement resulted in Lakewood providing temporary housing assistance to dozens of residents before Tent City was dismantled in 2014. For many, that meant roughly a year of rental assistance.
When the assistance ended, the underlying problem hadn’t necessarily disappeared. Some former Tent City residents later surfaced in wooded encampments elsewhere in the region.
Brigham continued advocating for a permanent homeless shelter in Ocean County.
From Tent City to Town Square to Lake Carasaljo
The locations have changed.
First there was Tent City in the woods. Years later, homeless people gathering downtown became the focus of complaints, followed by the removal of trees, tables and benches. Much of that former public square is now parking.
The newest complaint concerns Lake Carasaljo.
“It appears that there is a group of vagrants that have made their presence on a bench at the lake with their shopping carts, and noise making it uncomfortable for families and children,” the resident wrote in the question submitted to Coles.
The writer also alleged the group was using the area for “bodily functions,” calling the situation a physical and emotional hazard for families.
“Everybody can enjoy the lake but no one should be permitted to create a hazardous and scary presence at the lake,” the resident wrote.
His decision was to send the complaint to the Lakewood Police Department.
The township spent years fighting to close Tent City. Homeless people later became a flashpoint downtown. Lakewood removed the trees that provided shade there, and the former square has since been substantially converted to parking.
Now residents are reporting similar concerns at the lake, and the mayor has again turned to police.